The Prince and the Pirate
by catthegreat
Summary: Fairy Tale AU. Naruto, like most princes who just turned 18, has embarked on an adventure to find his future princess. But he keeps showing up too late, running into a raven haired rogue instead. Who is this mysterious man? And why can't Naruto ever seem to be the one to save the damsel in distress?
1. Rapunzel's Tower

**AN:** _Hello and welcome to my fairy tale AU! For those of you who are here from Alley (or another of my works), I hope you enjoy this one as much as you've enjoyed the others. For new readers: welcome! This fic will take Alley's place in my rotation (for new readers: I have 3 ongoing fics, and I rotate between which I update at a time)._

_Really quick before we begin: this fic is currently rated **T**** for violence and language** (I like to cuss and my characters do too). I have the **entire** fic planned out already (just splitting into chapters) which is impressive for me. There are spots where the rating can be upped to M (or left at T) without changing the plot at all. And when I say M, you know I mean smut. I'll bring it up as wel get closer, but the rating change is up to you guys._

_And one last thing (this will probably be the longest AN i swear I'll try to keep them shorter): Sasuke talks in this fic. I know that's a little OOC to some people, but for the sake of this AU (and because I want him to) he says more than just "hn". That's the only warning I have for this chapter, so without further ado please enjoy and let me know what you think! :)_

* * *

Rapunzel's Tower

_Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl with long, golden hair. She had been locked in a tall tower with one window and no doors as a baby, never allowed to venture outside. Many a thief and a hero would try to break into the mysterious tower with no door, thinking it held riches or spells. They would yell things like 'Open Sesame!' or 'I command thee to let me enter!' But no door ever appeared, and the stone walls were too smooth for them to climb. Eventually, dejected, the men would disappear, looking elsewhere for adventure. The witch would chuckle at the knowledge her secret was safe; for only she knew the way up, only she knew the sacred words needed to get into the castle: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!'_

Naruto closed the old tome, releasing dust into the air. He placed the book back in his saddle bag before dismounting his horse. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," he muttered to himself under his breath, committing the words to memory. "Stay here, Kurama." The blond man ordered his horse. "I'll be back soon with a princess."

He walked forward, leaving his now grazing steed behind in the forest, emerging into a clearing. A tall tower bearing a single window stood before him. According to all his research – and the helpful, magical book – this was the tower that held the damsel, Rapunzel, within its walls. Naruto wondered idly if it were important he repeat the name of his soon-to-be princess twice or if that just made the story flow smoother. He decided not to risk it; twice was probably best.

The blond man paused just before reaching the tower. This was it; after months of searching, he was finally going to realize his dream. Naruto Uzumaki – or as he was known back in the Fire Country 'The Golden Prince' – was finally going to get his princess. It was important, after all, that all princes journey off on a great adventure at the age of 18 and return with a beautiful woman, worthy of being their country's future queen. He'd read about adventures and potential damsels in distress all his life; it was what he was trained to do as soon as he could walk.

And now, he was gonna do it.

With a deep breath, the blond approached the tower just below the window, calling out as he went. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" He flung his arms out to the side, closing his eyes as he prepared for the braid to fall. A few minutes he stood like that, and nothing happened.

Finally, a blue eye popped open. No braid. The other opened as well. He spun around, looking everywhere to find a golden waterfall of hair. Nothing. He stopped, facing the wall. He squinted.

There, swaying in the breeze, was a brown rope. Naruto scratched his head. He _distinctly_ remembered reading that the girl lowered her _hair _down. It was golden, and she had a lot of it. This was just a small, ordinary looking rope. He walked up to it and gave it an experimental tug. It swung a bit, but didn't fall.

Naruto looked left and right, making sure no one was watching, before jumping onto the rope, putting his whole weight onto it. It held. Warily, he started climbing. Hand over hand, feet braced against the wall. It was certainly no flowing golden waterfall of hair, but it was a way up. And hey, who was he to think the stories were 100% accurate 100% of the time? The damsel – Rapunzel, he reminded himself sharply – would probably snap her neck trying to hold his weight up anyway.

The blond prince slowed his pace as he reached the top, making sure not to bump his head on the windowsill. He grabbed hold of the ledge, not letting go with the rope, and pulled a bit to make sure it wasn't going to snap off. It didn't.

With a grunt, Naruto pulled himself over the ledge and into the room, collapsing on the ground in a heap. He leapt back up almost immediately, looking around again to make sure no one saw his brief moment of gracelessness. The last thing he needed was his future wife thinking he was a klutz.

Speaking of the future queen of Fire Country…where was she? He knew a girl who had been locked in a tower for the better part of 18 years would be shy, but he thought she would've popped out at the sight of his handsomeness by now. "Uh…Hello? Rapunzel?" He called into the tower.

The sound of metal clattering to the ground replied. Naruto spun around and saw a golden bowl roll towards him. He stared at it as it spun around his legs, hit his foot, and fell over with one last clang. Blinking in confusion, the blond looked up to where the bowl had come from. It was a tapestry. Just an old tapestry.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when it moved, grabbing blindly for his sword. A figure draped in black walked out of it, carrying a large pile of gold and jewels in his hands. Naruto's jaw dropped. "Where's Rapunzel?!" He exclaimed.

The man turned to look at him. He was tall, pale, and had raven black hair. His eyes were almost as dark, and they gazed at Naruto seemingly unsurprised to find him standing there. They flicked over him, pausing briefly where his hand still gripped the sword sheathed at his waist, before turning away.

The apparent lack of interest from the other man irked Naruto for some reason. He approached the guy, following him as he crossed the room to the large king-sized bed. "Who the hell are you? And where's Rapunzel?"

With a loud clatter, the raven dropped what he'd been holding into a large cloth bag on the mattress. He glanced up at Naruto, wearing a bored expression, and the blond glared right back. "Hn." The man said finally, and that sound alone made a blue eye twitch. "Why don't you take it up with the guy who was here before me?" And he turned away, testing the walls for more secret doors, Naruto had no doubt.

"_Excuse_ you? Who do you think you are?" He'd been in this room for maybe five minutes and he already despised this man.

The raven turned back and narrowed his eyes. "Who I am is none of your business, _prince_."

Naruto smirked, standing up straighter. Finally, he had one up on this guy. "Good, so you know who I am."

"I know _what_ you are by those ridiculous robes you're wearing. A cape, really? And bright orange to boot. All you princes are the same; dressing like goddammed clowns."

The blond pulled out his sword, gripping it with both his hands. "You watch your mouth."

The man's eyes flicked over the blade before he returned to his task of hitting his fist against the walls. "Put that away before you hurt yourself, little prince." The way the man said prince _really_ pissed Naruto off. He growled.

"I'll have you know I've been trained in the art of swordsmanship since I was able to _walk_, rogue." He spat the word rogue. "Now, you'll do well to tell me where my princess has gone, or so help me I will remove your head from your shoulders."

The raven, apparently giving up on his quest to find another trap door, quirked an eyebrow at Naruto but made no other move. "Rogue, am I? Huh. Never been called that before." Sarcasm dripped from his words.

"Don't get sassy with me, _rogue_." He emphasized it this time, just in case he didn't get his point across sooner. "I'll have your tongue."

"Oooh. Testy little prince, aren't we? And which kingdom are you from?" He was _smirking _now. The nerve!

"None of your business." Naruto stepped closer, still steadily holding his sword up. His eyes glanced down, and he noticed a cutlass laying on the bed between them. The puzzle clicked together in Naruto's head, and he knew exactly what kind of thief he was dealing with. "Now you can either tell me where my princess is, or you can clear out and take your…loot with you."

The raven's smirk grew. "Oh, I don't think she's _your_ princess. Not after the mess I found on the bed when I arrived."

It took him a second to understand. "No."

The other man flicked the covers up, revealing a dried white and pink mess underneath, before covering it once more.

The blond scrunched his nose. "That's disgusting."

"Hn."

Naruto sheathed his sword, concluding that Rapunzel was a lost cause. "So what are you doing here anyway, pirate?"

"I'm a pirate now? I thought I was a rogue." The man had gone back to glancing through the pile on the bed, occasionally throwing items onto the floor.

The blond shrugged, wandering around the room to look at the paintings. "Black tunic, faded boots, and a cutlass – not to mention your apparent love of treasure – all leading to one conclusion: you're a pirate."

A clattering came from the bed, and Naruto turned to see the other gathering everything into a brown cloth bag. "Not bad for an idiot prince." He walked over to the window, tossing the bag over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Naruto asked, hand once more on his sword hilt.

The raven was already on the ledge, hands wrapped around the rope. "Well, you did tell me to clear out. Farewell, idiot prince," he said, disappearing down the side. Naruto ran to the window, but by the time he got there, the man had already reached the ground and was sprinting off into the forest. The blond wasted a moment, cursing himself for leaving his horse unattended, before descending. He was slower than the pirate; he tried sliding down the way the other must have, but it gave him rope burn, and he had to go hand over hand instead.

He raced out of the clearing, into the trees where he left his horse and breathed a sigh of relief to find him still grazing. "Hey Kurama." The horse looked up as he approached at a slow walk. Naruto reached up and patted Kurama on his nose. "Sorry, but I this princess didn't work out. The next one will though, I just know it." He gathered the reins and mounted, turning his horse in the direction they'd come. They raced back to the fire country while Naruto racked his brains for what he'd tell his father.

* * *

They must've seen him coming from miles away, because there was a welcome party ready at the gates. Naruto dropped his reins to his page, Konohamaru, and dismounted. He ignored the questioning looks everyone was giving him, racing instead to the throne room where his father was bound to be. The guards opened the doors to the castle for him, and he marched through without wiping his boots.

Naruto threw the doors to the throne room open, storming in and glad to see his father was only meeting with his advisor, Shikaku. "Father," Naruto said, kneeling once he was at the base of the stairs leading to the throne.

"Naruto? Back so soon?"

The prince stood from his kneel. "I was gone for months, father."

The king nodded. "And yet here you stand, without a princess. Was Rapunzel not in her tower? I know you had your heart set on that one."

Naruto hung his head, not daring to look at his dad or Shikaku. "I am sorry. It seems another had gotten there first."

"Hmm. It happens sometimes. I confess; I did not expect your first attempt to be successful."

"Father?" Naruto looked up at the king in confusion.

The man smiled genially at him, and Naruto felt his mood lighten. "Walk with me." The king stood up, nodding to his advisor before he looped his arm through Naruto's and led the two of them from the room. Once they were outside – and out of earshot of the guards – the king grinned, his eyes winking mischievously. Everyone always said Naruto looked just like his father, but it was moments like this that it really showed through.

"Phew," the king said, his tone different than it had been inside. "Being so formal all the time wears me out."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, it totally sucks that I have to talk to you the same way the knights do."

His dad shrugged carelessly. "Shikaku's always telling me the men respect me more from a distance, and I should be less personable. Can you believe that? People in the damn Kingdom of Water are running from their king because _he_ makes their children fight to the death once they come of age and _I'm_ too personable!"

The blond just smiled, letting his father rant; he'd heard it all before. King Minato, or 'The Yellow King', was the most beloved monarch in the five great nations. He was known for being fair and gentle, even though his wife had died when Naruto was a baby. He'd never taken another queen, and the citizens never thought he needed one. Naruto often feared he'd never be able to fill his dad's shoes when the time came for him to take the throne. He pushed that thought down, instead focusing on more recent matters.

"Dad, what do I do? I'm supposed to have a princess."

"No, Naruto. If you think the end goal is a princess, then you're missing the point."

The prince sighed, having heard this lecture just before he'd left. "You said that before, but you won't tell me what the end goal _is_. I thought I needed to bring back a princess."

"Well that would be nice, but that isn't all you'll bring back."

"What then? Gold? Riches? We already have enough of that, and besides Kurama can only carry so much."

The king looked down at Naruto, his expression clearly stating that he _wasn't_ going to tell the prince what he was supposed to be looking for. "You know I won't tell you, son." He continued hastily as Naruto opened his mouth to retort. "But I can tell you that you need to get out there and keep searching. Who was next on your list? You can rest and start gathering research before you head out again."

Naruto pouted up at his dad, knowing he was just being thrown a bone. "I don't remember, but I can check once I look at the book."

Minato nodded, turning them back to the castle. "Get unpacked and grab the book. It's getting close to sunset; we'll have dinner in the grand dining room to celebrate your return."

The prince followed, making a mental list of the things he had to do that night. Then he remembered something. "Dad, I think I met a pirate. Up in Rapunzel's tower I mean."

The king waved his hand dismissively. "Empty towers and places where witches used to live are prime hunting grounds for thieves and pirates. I'm not surprised you ran into one."

"What do they want in there? The princess is gone already."

"Well, like you said, you can only carry so much on one horse. Many of the adventurers are princes like you or men working for a reward; they don't need the treasure. Others, though, wait for the damsels to be saved and the witches to be killed. They take the gold and spells left behind. You'll probably run into more before your adventures are done." Naruto nodded to himself. That made sense; rogues and cowards wait for the strong to defeat the evil creature and then break in and steal what's left.

He trailed the king up the stairs, thinking about the rogue with raven black hair. He probably would never see that particular pirate again. But as the thought crossed his mind, Naruto wasn't sure he liked it.


	2. The Forest of the Dancing Princesses

**AN: **_I apologise for the long wait; I had some serious computer issues for awhile, but now I have a new one so updates will be much more regular. Yay! I actually really like this chapter. A lot happens, and there's quite a bit of set up, but the Twelve Dancing Princesses was my favorite fairy tale as a kid and I couldn't _not_ include it in this story, ya know? (Which is why this chapter is like twice the length of the last one...sorry Rapunzel)_

_I hope you enjoy, and you all know how much I love reading reviews so I hope I get to hear what you guys think! :)_

_**Warning: I brought sassy Sasuke back (minor ooc)**  
_

* * *

**The Forest of the Dancing Princesses**

_Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve daughters, each more beautiful than the last. They shared a room on the top floor of the castle, and every night the door was securely locked. But one morning, a young servant who cleaned the rooms when the princesses had left to go about their business noticed that all twelve pairs of dancing shoes had been completely worn through. At first, no one in the castle thought anything of it, and twelve new pairs of shoes were placed in their rooms before the end of the day._

_ However the next morning, the same servant noticed that all twelve pairs of new shoes had been worn through again sometime in the night. This repeated three more times before it was brought to the attention of the king. The king was perplexed, but when he asked each of his daughters how they had worn through their shoes in one night, they did not answer. He placed guards outside their door to ensure no one entered or exited the room. The next morning, the guards claimed that, not only had the door remained firmly shut, no sounds of dancing had taken place inside the room either._

_ As the mystery of the worn-out dancing shoes continued to befuddle the castle, the king sent word out to all the land: any man who could discover the midnight secret within three days and three nights would become heir to his kingdom and could marry whichever daughter he chose. But if any man failed to discover the secret within the time limit, he would be put to death._

Naruto watched silently as the Witch of the Forest finished reading the story. She carefully closed the book and set it on the table between them, meeting Naruto's eyes with her own. "So," she said after a few moments of silence. "You've decided on your next quest then."

The blond prince nodded.

The Witch sighed, leaning back in her chair. She had a youthful appearance – no one knew her true age, though it was undoubtedly older than she claimed – which was accented by her smooth, nearly unblemished skin and large, perky breasts. The dot on her forehead between her eyes was the only mark on her body, and rumors claimed it was the source of her immortal life. No one really knew if she were immortal or not, they just all assumed it was true.

"I'm not going to lie to you, prince, this one is a bit tougher than yelling a girl's name three times and climbing a tower."

"I think I can handle it, Granny."

Her eye twitched. "Listen here, brat," she growled, dropping the formal business tone she'd spoken with before. "I am only helping you out of the goodness of my heart, and if you're just going to get smart with me, then I will gladly send you on your way without any advice at all."

Naruto pouted. "Aw, come on, Granny. You _owe_ me, remember? That one time I completed your challenge in three days –"

"Alright, alright I get it." The Witch drew her hand over her face in defeat. "But if you're cashing in on this debt now, you can't take it back later."

The blond prince nodded enthusiastically. If this quest worked out the way he hoped it would – that is, if he got a princess – then he wouldn't need a second favor. "I'm cashing in the debt, Granny Witch. What's the secret? Tell me, tell me."

He wouldn't have come to her in the first place if this had been any other story in the book. After the Rapunzel incident, he hadn't put much more thought into what he wanted to do and ended up idly flipping through the book's pages without any interest. Sometime around his fourth or fifth "read-through", he noticed something strange; Rapunzel was no longer in the book. Instead, her story was replaced with one he'd never seen before.

As a child, he'd seen the stories change often; whenever a prince completed their quest and found a princess, the story would disappear and be replaced with another one. But in the few years leading up to his 18th birthday, the book had remained completely unchanged, and he knew the secret to all of them.

He supposed he shouldn't be surprised Rapunzel's story was gone; after all, she had been rescued already by the time he'd gotten there. The only strange thing was how long it took for the book to change. If it had changed while he was still journeying, he would never have climbed the tower and met the mysterious rogue.

"Patience, brat," the Witch cut across his thoughts. "I haven't Seen anything yet." She stood up and bustled about the cabin, gathering what Naruto supposed were ingredients so she could See into the story.

Naruto tapped his foot nervously on the ground. Ever since this story had appeared in the book, he'd felt an overwhelming sense of urgency. His fateful meeting with the pirate in Rapunzel's tower had taught him that not all quests ended as perfectly as he'd thought; sometimes other people got there first, and all that was left were a few looters and spells. He couldn't help but think that becoming an heir to another country and having the ability to choose between 12 brides was enticing to more than just him, and if he didn't move quickly then he would lose this one as well.

"_Three forests_," the Witch said. Naruto looked over, unaware that she had begun the Seeing already. She was leaning over the open fire, burning a bright green, in the middle of the cottage, her eyes glassed over as she looked at something far away. "_One of silver, one of gold, and one of diamonds. There is a lake, where twelve princes of old wait for the princesses. There is a castle on the lake. That is where the shoes are worn through._"

"How do they get there?" Naruto asked. Knowing the answer is all well and good, but if he can't prove to the king how it happened, he'd be put to death for sure.

"_There is a door in their room. A secret passage built into the floor. It takes them to the world beyond._" The Witch looked at Naruto, her eyes still glassed over. "_But beware, golden prince, for that world is not one entered lightly. The princes of old do not tolerate the living._" She shuddered and stepped back, the fire returning to its soft orange color as it flickered and died.

"Well…" Naruto said. "That was ominous." The Witch looked up at him with faint amusement in her eyes. "So how do I get to the world then? I highly doubt the king will let me stay in a room where his hot daughters sleep."

She rolled her eyes. "You've been hanging around your father's old Warlock too long, little Naruto. Thinking of girls in their bedrooms." She shook her head. "No, of course I don't expect you to waltz in there. You're more the dramatic type anyway."

The blond grinned. "Believe it."

She ignored him, instead walking back to her cupboards and rustling through them. "I think I have something for you…here." She pulled out a small, black candle. It didn't look like it had enough wax on it to even light at all. "Hold the book in one hand, with the story open, and hold the candle in the other hand. As long as you're thinking about the forest, you'll appear there."

"Why can't I go straight to the castle?"

The Witch shook her head. "The castle is ruled by the princes of old, remember? I can't send you to a place governed by the dead. Even if it is still in the land of the living."

Naruto buckled his sword around his waist and placed his pack on his back. He picked up the book, flipping it open to the story before accepting the candle the Witch offered in his other hand.

"It's nearing nightfall." The Witch snapped her fingers, a flame appearing between them. "The princesses should arrive not long after you. Be wary, especially of their princes."

"I will," he promised.

She lit the candle as he stared hard at the book, trying to imagine what a forest of silver could possibly look like, and with a whooshing motion that made his stomach churn, he disappeared.

* * *

Naruto blinked his eyes at the sudden brightness around him. When he'd read about a forest made of metal, he thought maybe it was just the leaves or something. Instead, what he saw, were entire trees of complete silver. It was blinding in the setting sun.

He averted his gaze down to the ground, and saw he'd managed to land on the path. A glance behind showed no trees, so he moved forward with one arm over his eyes to block the glare from the silver and hoped the forest would get thick enough for no light to shine through.

Naruto had been walking for barely five minutes when he noticed the blinding light change. Confused he looked up. Somewhere in his walking, he'd managed to get from the forest of silver to the one of gold. He frowned. That couldn't be right; forests were a lot bigger than that. He'd describe what he walked through as more…grove-like.

The light was still blinding enough that he looked down. He wanted to find somewhere to wait for the princesses while still in the forests, but he could barely see any–

BAM. Naruto ran into something and crashed hard on the ground. He sat confused for a second, positive he'd been following the path and there couldn't have been any trees in the way, and then he looked up. His stomach flip-flopped unpleasantly as he recognised the person standing before him.

The raven-haired rogue smirked at him. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the little prince with the orange cloak. I see your fashion sense hasn't improved."

"You," he growled jumping up and ignoring his stomach.

"Me," the pirate responded. "I see you still sound like just as much of an idiot as before."

Naruto glared at him. "I'm not an idiot."

"Hm." The raven turned away, and Naruto just then noticed that he had a large brown sack similar to the one he'd been carrying in the tower. The man ripped a golden leaf of the tree and slid it into the bag.

The blond scowled. "Looting again, I see. You got here early this time though; the princesses will be down shortly."

The raven looked back at Naruto, his eyebrow quirked perfectly. "_Rogues_ like me love looting for gold and jewels. This forest is a paradise, and despite what you may think the princesses won't be returning." He turned back to the tree, taking more leaves. "It'll be full of others like me in a day or two."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto hated how the raven always seemed to know so much more than him about _his_ adventure.

The raven leveled his gaze at Naruto over his shoulder. "Surely you aren't stupid enough to show up late _twice_." At the lack of response from the blond, the other's eyes widened incredulously. "You are?"

"What are you talking about?" The blond repeated, gritting his teeth.

The other man placed the new leaves he'd gathered in the sack and crossed his arms over his chest. "The princesses are gone. A soldier, I think, solved the mystery and now all the princesses have been married off and sent away."

Naruto's mouth dropped, at a loss of what to say.

"You really didn't know?"

"No." Naruto found his voice again. "The story just appeared a few days ago…"

The raven shrugged. "Well you're a day late, little prince. Better luck next time."

Naruto could've slammed his head on the stupid golden tree trunks. How could he be late _twice_? This was ridiculous. He continued down the path, brushing past the rogue without looking. He wasn't sure what to do with himself now, but he knew he didn't want to be anywhere near the stupid raven with his stupid smirk and his stupid perfectly quirked eyebrows.

"Where are you going, little prince?"

"None of your business," Naruto growled. "And I'm not little. I'm at least as tall as you." He added almost as an afterthought. He continued to follow the path, not waiting to hear a response.

Naruto wandered aimlessly, no longer averting his eyes. The sun had dipped past the horizon at this point, and the trees weren't blinding him anymore. He noticed passively that the golden forest was more like a grove as well, giving way to diamonds in a much shorter time than he would've thought it should. The diamond trees seemed to dance, reflecting the setting sun around themselves and creating the illusion of being in a forest of rainbows. He stopped and admired the sight as the sun sunk further, and the trees grew dark.

The moon began to rise at some point, the faint glow of it enough to light the path through the trees. Once it was visible, Naruto continued on his way. He wasn't sure how long he was walking before the trees cleared and he found himself standing on the outside of the forest, gazing at a calm lake.

It was larger than the ones in the Fire Country's forest, ending somewhere beyond Naruto's vision. The water was crystal clear, reflecting the moon above without any distortions at all. But that wasn't what held Naruto's attention.

In the center of the lake, floating seemingly on nothing, was a castle. In his mind he knew it was the very castle the princesses had visited every night, wearing holes through their shoes as they danced, but he'd never imagined it would be so…enchanting. He'd never wanted to step foot inside a building as badly as he wanted to go into that castle.

He didn't realize he was walking until his leg bumped something. Confused, Naruto looked down. He was stopped at the edge of the lake, and the only thing that had prevented him from falling in was a small brown row boat sitting half out of the water. It rocked merrily as he hit it again, and the sudden urge to get into it and row to the castle overwhelmed Naruto.

Without a second thought, he shoved the boat into the lake and leapt in, allowing it to sweep him away. The lake was still perfectly calm, and there were no oars in the boat with Naruto, but it moved swiftly and silently towards the castle regardless. A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that something that moved without aid was bad, but the sight of the beautiful castle getting closer squashed it.

As the boat approached, Naruto noticed that the windows appeared to be lit from the inside. It bathed the castle in a golden light and made it all the more entrancing. The boat tapped against something, stopping abruptly, and Naruto tore his eyes from the castle itself long enough to notice a courtyard leading to the entrance.

He leapt lightly out of the boat, onto the solid ground – strange, he thought, that the ground felt so solid and yet it didn't appear to be an island – walking without glancing sideways toward the entrance. The doors loomed over him, wooden and carved with a pattern of roses. He didn't have time to wonder about this before they opened. There was nobody inside, but Naruto stepped into the entrance nonetheless.

His happiness and enchantment disappeared the moment the doors slammed shut behind him. He spun around to see what caused it, but only saw the candles framing the door blow out, casting darkness throughout the room. He turned back slowly, not sure he wanted to see what had made the candles go out. The only light was from the moon outside. Naruto squinted when he saw nothing, a pit of worry growing in his stomach. He should not be here. Hadn't the Witch of the Forest warned him about something in the castle…?

"_Young man…_" A voice that could've been no softer than a whisper yet boomed loudly in Naruto's ears called out. "_You are not welcome here._"

"Sorry!" He yelled, backing up cautiously and glancing around to either side of him, searching for the source of the voice. "I was just leaving…" He spun around to the doors, pulling on their handles. As he suspected, they didn't budge.

A cold wind whooshed by his ear, and Naruto turned so his back was pressed against the door, drawing his sword warily. The voice from before let out what sounded like a breathy laugh. "_Your mortal weapons will do nothing against us, boy._"

Naruto swallowed and yelled foolishly. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Golden Prince of the Fire Country, and you'd do well to let me go!"

At first the thing didn't respond, and Naruto hoped against hope he'd said the right thing. "_It has been ages since we last feasted upon a prince's soul. You bring us great joy._"

Naruto gulped. Well that probably wasn't good. A crack sounded throughout the hall, and twelve men appeared. They were gaunt and appeared to be missing bits of flesh in some places. The blond wondered wildly how the princesses could've possibly wanted to dance so badly they'd looked past the clearly monstrous forms of their partners.

One of them stepped forward. "_Come, prince. Let us taste if your insides are as golden as you claim._" As one, they charged.

Yup, Naruto thought wildly as he darted past them, swinging his sword uselessly, definitely not good.

* * *

Sasuke placed the last of the diamond leaves he'd gathered into his bag. He'd filled it up with as much as he could fit, and he was pleased with the results. He hoisted it over his shoulder, a nagging suspicion that he was forgetting something playing at his brain.

He shrugged it away, deciding it was nothing, and glanced around. The forest was beautiful, and it was almost a shame that it would be looted beyond recognition within the week. Almost. He supposed he couldn't feel too bad; after all, he'd already started it by taking his share.

He was sure the blond prince wouldn't feel the same way; he'd seemed to take personal offense to the raid on the tower several weeks ago. Sasuke almost dropped his bag in shock. The blond prince! That's what he was forgetting!

The raven dropped his bag on the path, rushing out of the trees so he could see the lake. He didn't approach it, knowing better than to enter the domain of the dead, but there was no one there. He supposed the blond could've just left after finding out he was too late once again, but for some reason he doubted it.

Why did he even care anyway? He was here to get the goods, plain and simple. Babysitting idiot princes was _not_ in his job description. But the uneasy feeling stayed in his gut as his eyes scanned the lake. There was no sign of anything amiss on it; the castle in the middle looked as empty and dark as usual, and –

Sasuke's eyes widened as he noticed a small brown boat bobbing in the water at the edge of the castle. He wasn't sure if it was a trick of his mind, so he stepped closer. As soon as he was out of reach of the trees, the boat shot away from the castle, speeding back to the shore he was standing on. That motion was enough for Sasuke to put two and two together, and he worked out what had most likely happened.

Cursing, the raven stepped back into reach of the trees, but the boat's progress didn't slow. Soon it was sitting on the shore, completely still as if it hadn't moved in years. He shuddered, not approaching it. He knew better than to mess with dark magic.

A mental battle raged inside Sasuke's head as he stared at the castle in the lake. It looked untouched, but something in him _knew_ the blond prince was in there. Cursing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tall black candle. He reminded himself that saving idiots wasn't his job, but he'd already encountered this particular one twice, and somehow he felt responsible.

Staring at the castle and picturing the prince in his mind, Sasuke lit the candle and vanished from before the diamond trees, the leaves rustling in his wake.

He blinked his eyes a few times as he landed, gathering his surroundings. He appeared to be standing at the top of a large stairwell in a dark castle. He couldn't see anyone near him and silently cursed the stupid blond prince for getting himself into this mess in the first place.

Sasuke descended the staircase, his eyes adjusting to the lack of light. If he managed to get this prince out of harm's way, he was going to demand a reward so big he'd never have to go on these stupid raids again. Sounds reached his ears and Sasuke paused. Someone seemed to be whispering and yelling at the same time. And they were getting closer.

He continued his descent, keeping the candle tight in his grip, taking the stairs two at a time. The stairs curved, and he paused, darting his head out to see what was going on before he decided to jump in the middle of it. A single torch at the bottom of the stairs was lit, and the blond prince seemed to be trying to use it to ward off the beings approaching him. They looked like rotting corpses, and Sasuke realized with a sinking heart exactly what they were. He'd read about them once before; there was no way to defeat them.

He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a match, concocting a plan in his head. This would have to work perfectly in order save the prince and get out himself. If he fumbled at all, they would both be dead in moments. The torch went out.

"_Stop struggling, princeling. You cannot escape us._" The beings approached the prince, and Sasuke made his move.

With a shout he flew down the stairs. The hand holding the match scraped it on the railing as he went, lighting a flame. He reached the stunned prince, grabbing him around his waist. "Diamond trees!" He yelled as he lit the black candle.

His stomach dropped and before he could blink his feet were back on solid ground. He released the prince immediately, and the blond doubled over on himself, gasping for air. Sasuke sucked in a few breaths, not used to the rushing of the candle, as he observed the blond silently.

"Thanks," the prince panted straightening up and stowing his sword into is sheath.

A sudden surge of rage overwhelmed Sasuke and he lurched over, grabbing the prince by his collar and shoving his back against the nearest tree. "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

The prince's eyes widened in shock, and Sasuke noticed just how _blue_ they were for the first time. The pale moonlight seemed to emphasize their color as well, casting enough light so the diamonds around the prince all reflected the blue of his eyes. Sasuke dropped the prince's collar as if burned and backed away. He wasn't sure what had just happened; he never lost control.

"What's your problem?" The prince growled.

Sasuke scowled, looking at the ground rather than meeting those entrancing eyes again. "I don't have a problem."

"Well, it kinda seems like you do. I just thanked you and you attacked me! Are you insane?" The other's voice sounded wary at the last one, like the prince wasn't sure if he wanted to continue yelling at him or run away.

Sasuke took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and looked up at the prince again. This time, he focused his gaze on the strange scars on the blond's cheeks. "Only idiots charge into a castle owned by the dead. Your soul was almost eaten, and then you would've turned into one of them."

"Ah…" The prince looked away uncomfortably. "That sounds…thanks for saving me anyway."

Sasuke bit back an angry retort, reminding himself that the prince was _thanking_ him, and it would be uncalled for to punch him in the face. He really needed to get a handle on this anger thing; it was starting to get out of control. "Don't mention it," he bit out instead.

Sasuke spotted his bag sitting by a tree to the prince's left. He approached, and the blond flinched – probably thinking he was going to be slammed against the tree again – but Sasuke ignored him. He snatched his bag up and gave the blond a level look. He had control over his emotions once again.

"Next time you decide to get into trouble, don't drag me into it."

"I didn't mean to," the other argued weakly. "I'm sorry."

The apology moved Sasuke more than the gratitude from before. His shoulders relaxed. "Just don't do it again, ok? The next rogue you run into might not be as nice as I am." He quirked a smirk at the blond who looked up, confusion all over his face.

Sasuke grabbed one last match from his pocket, deciding it was best to leave before he said anything else stupid. He nodded to the prince, who returned the gesture, before lighting the candle once more and disappearing.

* * *

Naruto stared, flabbergasted, at the place where the rogue had been standing. Only a few hours had passed since he'd first arrived in the silver forest, but in that time he'd been nearly blinded, ran into the last person he'd ever wanted to see, nearly died, and then been saved by that same person. He'd actually forgotten why he was here in the first place.

That reminded him, and a scowl settled on Naruto's face. His second adventure was a failure just like the first. At this rate, he was never going to find his princess.

He kicked a rock as he wandered down the path back the direction he'd come. If he remembered the story correctly – which he did – there would be a door to a secret staircase around here somewhere, leading to the princesses' old room. He could climb out and find a way home. There were always peasants willing to lend horses to a prince in exchange for a few gold coins or – he thought as he pulled a few leaves off the trees as he passed by – golden leaves.

Just outside the silver grove, a large oak tree stood. It was clearly out of place in the area, and Naruto determined that meant it was magical. Sure enough, when he pressed on the right knot, a door opened revealing a spiraling staircase that went higher than the tree.

Naruto ascended the stairs, finally starting to regain his senses from the shock of being nearly killed by those dead things and then again by the raven moments later. More than his displeasure at not finding a princess – yet again – he felt ashamed that he'd needed to rely on another person. He was a hero, wasn't he? A hero never needed to be saved. After all, a hero was the one who did the saving.

The blond prince was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice he was reaching the top until his head bumped sharply against the trap door. He glared at the offending object, rubbing circles on the bruise and threw the trap door open. There was a soft squeak of surprise as he ascended from the floor into the former bedroom, and he absently noticed a couple of servants staring at him. They appeared to be in the middle of packing when he'd literally burst through the floor. He nodded politely to them but didn't say anything as he walked out the door.


	3. The Castle at Dawn part 1

**AN: **_First of all, if you follow my other stories I am sorry I didn't update them first; my new year's resolution is to have at least one update a week, and I won't have a chance to write a lot this weekend. I have not abandoned my other stories though, never fear. As for this chapter, it will be split into 2 parts because a) it was getting too long and b) I really need to go to sleep because I have class in the morning and a quiz in the afternoon I haven't studied for. This fairy tale is sleeping beauty (obviously), and I kinda took Disney's...but I also kinda warped it into what I wanted. Hopefully none of you are upset with what I've been doing to the fairy tales..._

_Anyway: enjoy the chapter and drop a review if you so desire! I read them all :)_

* * *

**The Castle at Dawn part 1**

_Once upon a time there lived a gentle king. He and his wife had always longed for a child of their own, but for the longest time parenthood evaded them. When, at long last, the queen was pregnant with their heir, they held a large party to celebrate the new child's birth. Noblemen, faeries, and creatures from across the land came to see the new princess who was rumored to be even more beautiful than the famed Snow White._

_ The little princess had hair like the sun at dawn and pale blue eyes the color of the sky in the early morning. The queen named her "Aurora" after the dawn she resembled. The celebration was going well, the faeries giving the princess gifts of beauty and kindness, until an evil Witch arrived. The Witch Maleficent was offended at not receiving an invite and cursed the young princess to die at sixteen in her anger before disappearing once more._

_ The queen and king were devastated. After waiting so long for a child, they could not bear to lose her so soon. But one last faerie had yet to bestow her gift. She changed the Witch's curse so that, instead of dying at the age of sixteen, Princess Aurora would prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a deep sleep. She could only be awoken by a man worthy enough to challenge the Witch Maleficent and her pet dragon._

_ Despite the happier turn of events, the king was terrified to lose his daughter. He ordered all the spinning wheels, spindles, and even needles to be burned. Any person in the kingdom who was found with one of those sharp objects in their possession was put to death. And it seemed as though the young princess could avoid her tragic fate._

_ Years passed, and the princess grew more and more beautiful. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Princess Aurora encountered a kindly old woman working with a strange instrument. Curious and unaware of her curse, the princess approached the woman and asked what it was. But as she got closer to the spinning wheel, her countenance changed and she walked as if drawn to it. Without realizing what she was doing, the princess touched the spindle and the curse was fulfilled._

_ The king was beside himself with fury when her unconscious body was discovered, but try though they might, no one was able to find who had been the owner of the spinning wheel. It was as if the old woman had disappeared into thin air. They locked the princess in a tower so no unworthy person could touch her and the king and queen visited her every day._

_ In despair, the king neglected to take care of his kingdom, and soon the land fell into other hands. Slowly, the castle emptied of its occupants until only the king, queen, and sleeping princess were left. They diligently guarded her until the end of their lives._

_ After the king and queen passed, the Witch Maleficent and her dragon moved into the castle. 100 years have passed since that day, and still the princess waits for her true love._

* * *

Naruto decided that it was fate for him to pursue the Sleeping Princess. After all, it was the only story that had remained constant since the book had been made. How many times had he opened it with the intention of finding a random story and it had fallen open to hers?

It was more likely, he decided, that he'd succeed in a story that hadn't been finished in over 100 years than one that had appeared mere days before he left.

He sighed in dejection, looking around his camp site. He wasn't far from where the castle was – he knew all the secrets to this story, including the location of the castle, after all – and if he waited any longer then he wouldn't have a full day to battle the dragon. Naruto packed up his bag, throwing it on his back and made his way down the hill he'd been sleeping on.

He hadn't gone home after the adventure in the forest, having chosen to move straight to his next attempt rather than tell his father he'd failed again. Immediately after leaving the castle of the twelve princesses – an awkward affair in which he narrowly escaped a jail sentence for breaking and entering – he'd travelled to the nearest town and bought supplies for his new journey. Naruto had a map the Witch of the Forest had given him on his sixteenth birthday which showed the locations of each story in his book as they appeared. It turned out the sleeping princess' castle wasn't far from where he was; apparently the family the twelve princesses belonged to were the ones who had taken over the kingdom all those years ago. Again, he thought it was destiny.

The sleeping princess had never been his favorite story. It wasn't because he didn't like the idea of waking a beautiful girl from her sleep with a kiss; it was more because of the dragon. He wasn't afraid of the dragon, per say, but there _was_ a good reason no one had rescued the princess in over a century. Dragons were nearly impossible to kill. Their scales were tougher than the strongest faerie armor, and their fire was as hot as a volcano. They were also known for being greedy and unwilling to hand over their possessions. Wars between dragons was a fearsome thing.

Naruto knew he had a better chance than most against Maleficent's tamed dragon. He had an enchanted sword that could never be broken – though that made it heavier than most swords – and he had even defeated a Chimera before. (His father had been away on business and the creature attacked the castle. He had been sixteen at the time, and his victory was what originally sparked his nickname of "the Golden Prince" – Naruto never fully understood this, but he supposed it was because his sword had glowed a golden color when it sliced through the Chimera.)

But despite all this, the blond couldn't say he was looking forward to battling a dragon. Rampaging Chimera were much easier to kill. Nevertheless, he marched dutifully toward the forest of thorns which was just now visible.

If Naruto wasn't looking forward to defeating the dragon, then he was dreading the forest of thorns. From what his Witch had told him, the forest grew thick and sharp, and there was no way he could make it through unscathed even with his enchanted sword. She had instructed him to cover his face at all times; allow his arms to be sliced up rather than risk going blind.

As he approached though, doubt filled his mind. The forest of thorns should've been dark and foreboding; he shouldn't be able to see the castle beyond. But what he saw made him stop short.

Before him stood a wasteland. The forest had been burned away, leaving nothing in the area except for some charred bits of wood that barely came to his knees. He drew his sword, holding it in front of him in case it was just an illusion, but his sword sliced through the air revealing nothing that he couldn't already see.  
Something was wrong. Nothing could destroy the forest of thorns; if he cut a branch down it would regrow, if he burned it, then each tree would return thicker and sharper than before. He racked his brain, trying to think of what could've done this. Nothing could've wasted this forest except…except…Naruto's heart dropped.

Except dragonfire.

Dread filled the prince as he picked his way – never loosening his hold on his sword – toward the castle. He couldn't see from the distance he started at, but as he grew closer he could tell: the castle was a wreck.

Naruto stopped in front of it, gazing warily at the giant doors. They were still standing, but they were charred black, and the wall to the left had a large, gaping hole in it. Carefully, Naruto climbed up the rubble and made his way inside.

The inside wasn't much better than the outside. Bricks and bits of the wooden supports lay scattered all across the entrance, and the main staircase was missing some stairs. Skeletons, looking as if they'd been flung around by a giant child, were in various states of decay along the floor. Naruto tip-toed around them – he knew better than to mess with the dead now – and stopped outside the main ballroom.

From what the Witch of the Forest had Seen all those years ago, the ballroom was where the dragon slept. If it were still there – which Naruto suspected it was not – then he was bound to hear it breathing before he saw it. Silence reigned throughout the castle, and so the prince stuck his head into the room.

Nothing.

Naruto couldn't think of a single reason he liked that the dragon would abandon its post, but he continued to try as he climbed the stairs. The answers got less and less desirable with each gap he jumped, until he finally ended up resorting to listing off every single story that had ever appeared in the book in chronological order.

That didn't make him feel any better.

Fortunately, he reached the top before he was forced to go through proper stances for each style of swordplay he'd been taught. Unfortunately, the last gap he had to jump to reach the room the princess was sleeping in was too wide for him to jump. He glanced around until he saw some ominous looking chains nailed into the wall. They looked recent, and a quick tug revealed they could hold his body weight.

He took a running leap, using the chains to help him swing over to the other side, barely making it. He landed, falling to his knees, breathing heavily, and thinking that it was going to be so much harder with a princess in his arms. For a second, he almost wished the princess was gone just like the last two. Naruto mentally slapped himself for thinking such a thought. No. He was on this journey to find a princess, not to doubt himself.

A rustling from inside the room drew his attention. He gripped his sword tighter in one hand. This was it; clearly Maleficent had sent her dragon away after it rebelled, and now she was guarding over the princess herself. This was the battle Naruto had been training for all his life. He approached the door silently, not fooling himself into thinking the Witch wouldn't have already seen him coming, before kicking the door open in leaping in.

No Witch.

The blond blinked, looking around the room. All around him were piles of gold, jewels, and other riches, and in the middle there stood a large, canopied bed. He didn't have to approach it to see it was empty.

The rustling occurred again, this time directly to his right, and Naruto spun around holding his sword in front of him with two hands – the best starting stance when fighting against Witches. A figure appeared out of the piles of gold, and he nearly dropped his sword in surprise. It was the rogue. _Again_.

"Why are you here?!"

The rogue looked him over once, not looking surprised at all, before continuing on his way. It seemed like, just as in Rapunzel's tower, he was gathering what he planned to take on the bed.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, you know!"

The other didn't even slow down. Naruto sheathed his sword, running up to the raven, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around so they were facing each other. The rogue dropped half the things he was holding in the turn and simply glared at Naruto, but still didn't say anything.

"Are you deaf or something?" The blond growled angrily.

"Hn." The other responded, deftly twisting out of his hold and continuing on his way without picking up what had fallen.

"Bastard!" Naruto grabbed the nearest thing to him – a golden cup encrusted with rubies – and threw it as hard as he could across the room. The clanking sound it made when it hit the wall was strangely satisfying, and he grabbed a few more items – a crown and a tray – and threw them too.

He was furious; three times he'd gone on his journey to find his princess, and three times he'd been too late. It was beyond frustrating at this point. And to top it all off, he kept running into this same…raven haired…

Naruto paused in his throwing, staring instead at the man who was pointedly ignoring him and continuing to pack his bag. Three times he'd arrived too late, only to run into the same man. This was more than coincidence.

He dropped whatever he was holding and closed the distance between them in a few strides. The other either didn't hear him or didn't care, because Naruto reached him uninterrupted. He grabbed the raven and spun, throwing him against the nearest pile of jewels with his hand wrapped around the other's throat. He leaned in closer to the other, not letting him out of the space, and dropped his voice to the tone he only used when he was especially pissed.

"What are you playing at?"

The raven stared levelly back at him. "I'm not playing at anything. If you'll kindly let me go."

Naruto snarled and responded by tightening his grip. A look of shock briefly crossed the other's face. "Don't play dumb. You've been here all three times I've arrived too late. That's not coincidence."

The other glared but didn't respond. Naruto loosened his hand, so he could talk. "And you've shown up all three times I've been trying to collect from a recently evacuated goldmine. Perhaps you're the one trying to interfere with me."

"What? Why would I care about your stupid looting?"

"And why would I care about you getting a princess?"

Naruto's sour expression slipped off. He had a point. If the raven really cared about getting a princess then he would've stopped at one, and if he wanted to prevent Naruto from finding _his_ princess then there were better ways. But he didn't lower his hand or back away. From the way the other was standing, he could've easily gotten out of Naruto's hold, but chose not to.

For the first time, Naruto noticed the other's eyes. They were a deep grey, nearly black, and for some reason they were intoxicating. He could probably drown in them if he stared too long…

A roar from outside startled him from his thoughts. "What was that?" He turned to glance out the window, but didn't see anything.

"Shit," the other muttered, and Naruto looked back at him. The raven was wearing an expression of alarm that Naruto had never seen on him before. It unnerved him. "I took too long," the raven said as explanation.

"What are you –"

But Naruto never needed to finish his sentence, because another roar filled the air and suddenly he knew exactly what it was. He paled and turned to look at the rogue once more.

"Please tell me you have another one of those candles on you."

The raven shook his head. "And even if I did, they don't work inside the forest of thorns."

"But the forest is gone." Not that it mattered. They were out of luck either way.

"The dark magic is still there. It would render them useless." As the other spoke, his head swiveled around, looking for an outlet.

A third roar, closer than the other two, rang out, and Naruto grabbed the other's wrist, pulling him further away from the window. He weaved in and out of the piles, navigating the maze with an ease he wouldn't have been able to accomplish had he not memorized all the secrets in his book. At the far end of the room, they encountered the wall, made of brick like the rest, but smooth and circular.

"Idiot," the raven hissed. "What good is it going to do to stand here? The dragon will smell us before too long."

"Shh." Naruto ran his hand along the wall until his finger caught on an invisible imperfection. He _pushed_ and the wall swung inwards with a creak. He tugged the raven inside before shutting the wall once again.

Inside was a secret staircase, lit with enchanted torches. Or at least it should've been lit. They were standing in complete darkness – which meant Maleficent was dead, Naruto thought absently. Suddenly there was a hiss and fire lit the room. Naruto turned and stared at the raven, who was now holding a candle in his free hand.

The blond realized belatedly that he was still holding onto the other's wrist and dropped it. "I thought you said you didn't have a candle?"

"I don't have a _black_ candle, idiot." The other responded, staring at the steps that spun their way downward. "So what's the plan?"

Naruto started. "P-plan?"

"Yeah. You're the one who pushed us into this staircase. What now? Wait here until some other hero comes and kills the new dragon then leave before a third shows up?"

The blond scowled. "Of course not. That could take years."

"Exactly," the raven hissed.

"I'm going to defeat the dragon." Naruto started to descend the stairs. He stopped when he noticed the light wasn't following him and turned around to see the rogue staring at him open mouthed. "What?"

"_You're_ going to defeat the dragon?"

"That's what I said."

"I left you alone for five minutes last time and you almost got eaten by dead princes."

"That was different!" Naruto yelled, affronted. "I was never trained to deal with the dead!"

"Oh but you're trained to fight dragons?" The raven was smirking, his eyebrow raised. Naruto knew he was being sarcastic, but he didn't really want to play along. Not when he needed to conserve his energy for his battle with the dragon.

"Yes, actually, I am," he responded calmly. He may not have _wanted_ to battle a dragon today, but he was more than capable of handling one. And now that Naruto's mind was developing a plan, he felt calmer and more in control of his emotions than he'd been since he'd arrived in that forest days ago.

The raven seemed to be at a loss for words. Naruto gestured to him and once more descended the stairs. This time the light from the candle followed.

"I have a plan," he said as he walked. "But I might need your help."

"Hn," the raven responded, and Naruto took that as a yes.

"Ok. Listen close…"

** To be continued…**


	4. The Castle at Dawn part 2

**AN:**_ Hey! Quick update for you because it's still technically the same chapter. :) This one was fun to write, but it's also like 80% action so it was challenging. Ok a couple things before we start:_

_1. To the unnamed Guest reviewer: No that wasn't a waste of time! I love reading reviews and your enthusiasm was wonderful. Thank you! :)_

_2. **Warning: Badass Naruto and minor OOC Sasuke (but it should make sense in context and if it doesn't, you can ask me about it and I'll fix it because then I didn't make it clear enough)**_

_Enjoy and drop a review!_

* * *

**The Castle at Dawn part 2**

_Over 100 years passed since the princess was put into a deep sleep, and no one proved themselves worthy enough to wake her. Then, one day, a prince from another land spied the forest of thorns while ridding home from a diplomatic mission. He questioned people he saw along the road about what lay beyond the trees, feeling inexplicably drawn toward them. Many refused to answer or simply stated that they didn't know. But one kindly old woman told him that the castle from the old kingdom lay at the heart of the forest, holding a beautiful princess in an enchanted sleep._

_ Intrigued by her story, the prince then braved the dangerous forest, using his arm to guard his eyes from being poked out. As he began to doubt the words from the old crone, the trees thinned and he saw before him a beautiful castle which looked as though it had been suspended in time. He entered the castle and encountered the Witch Maleficent and her dragon. After a long battle against them both, the prince finally defeated the Witch and killed her weakened pet._

_ He ascended the stairs to the tower and at the top found a room filled with riches, the most wonderful of them at the center; the Sleeping Princess herself. The prince was so overwhelmed by her beauty that he fell to his knees beside her still form and kissed her on the lips. The kiss was enough to break the spell, and the princess woke up. With the spell broken, the castle was no longer protected by magic, and it started to fall into disrepair. The prince took Princess Aurora's hand and together they escaped the crumbling castle and ran off into the sunset to live happily ever after._

* * *

Sasuke stared hard at the back of the blond prince's head. The plan he'd come up with was idiotic at best; it was most likely going to get them both killed. He wracked his brain once more, trying to remember how he'd gotten himself into this situation, but kept coming to the same conclusion: it was all the prince's fault. He would've been long gone, treasure held safely over his shoulder, if that idiot hadn't shown up when he did.

He agreed with the prince about one thing though; it was more than just coincidence that they kept running into each other in the same way. The thought nagged at him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind; they had a dragon to deal with first.

"Rogue," the other whispered back to him. Sasuke frowned. He didn't like the nickname the prince had given him, but he didn't say anything; it was safer than telling the blond his real name. "You remember what you have to do, right?"

The blond looked back at him, and Sasuke nodded. This was the third time the prince had asked him the same thing, and it was getting annoying. He didn't say any of this however, preferring to stay quiet rather than risk the dragon hearing them.

"Good." The blond looked out the window. "It's almost time."

They were waiting until sunset to attack the dragon. Most creatures had better night vision than humans, so attacking the dragon at night was out of the question. However, just like humans, the changing light played tricks on their eyes. In fact, it was arguably worse for those with better night vision. The idea was brilliant in that regard, but it was too risky. The chances of them dying in the attempt were far greater than Sasuke wanted to imagine.

The blond passed a small flask back to Sasuke. "Wait for my signal." He pushed the trap door at the bottom of the hidden staircase open and the two of them stepped cautiously out. The prince had said the dragon would most likely be in the main ballroom, changing the old nest into a new one that suited its needs. Sasuke trusted his judgment but wasn't sure why; this was the same idiot he'd needed to save from the dead princes in the castle on the lake.

But sure enough, as they poked their heads into the ballroom, the dragon was there. It had its back to them, and Sasuke was overwhelmed by its size. He'd never seen a dragon in real life – never wanted to either – and it surpassed what he'd read and heard in stories.

The ballroom was huge, twice the size of any he'd seen before, but the dragon filled almost the whole thing. Suddenly the prince's idea to lure the dragon outside didn't seem so stupid to him; if they tried to fight it in here, they would be crushed. Quietly, they crossed the entrance to the room, breathing a sigh of relief – in unison, Sasuke noticed absently – when they reached the other side unnoticed.

The prince turned his incredibly blue eyes to Sasuke. "I'll meet you outside," he whispered barely audibly. Sasuke felt like a stone sink somewhere in his stomach as he nodded. He ran out of the entrance, scrambling over the stones near the door as quietly as he could – which was pretty damn quiet – without looking back.

The prince's plan was for him to lure the dragon outside of the castle while Sasuke lay in wait. Then, just as the creature got outside, Sasuke was supposed to open the flask and pour the water in front of him, demanding the dragon to obey. According to the blond, the combination of the sunlight and Sasuke's words should trick the dragon into thinking he was Maleficent herself – some Witch who was known for hunting and torturing dragons apparently – and it would obey her out of fear. If that happened, they'd have a better chance at defeating it.

But as Sasuke stood hidden behind a large chunk of the castle – it looked like it had been part of the nearest tower once – the thought that he could just leave flashed across his mind. The prince was in there distracting the dragon; this was his chance. If he ran now, he could make it out of reach of the dark magic before the idiot lured the dragon out. Then he could use the black candle he had – he'd lied when he told the prince he didn't have one – to get back to his ship.

Sasuke squashed the thought immediately. He might be a 'rogue' in the prince's eyes, but he wasn't cruel. And the thought of leaving the blond to deal with this alone made him feel more guilty than he should. A hideous roar – louder than the ones they'd heard in the tower – filled the air and tore the raven from his thoughts. Sasuke's vision jerked automatically toward the hole in the wall next to the doors, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

The blond prince was sprinting down the hallway toward the entrance, the dragon hot on his tail. He stumbled on one of the bricks as he reached the opening, and the dragon opened its mouth, releasing a massive stream of fire. Sasuke had the sudden fear that they wouldn't even be able to test the plan, because the prince was going to die right there –

The blond _leaped_ and somehow miraculously landed on the other side of the wall just as dragonfire flew over his head. Sasuke saw him breathe a sigh of relief at having escaped death, but it was too soon because the dragon was already spreading its wings. The raven watched in a somewhat detached horror as the dragon flapped its wings once and flew through the wall of the castle, creating a new hole over the doors and spilling bricks down on the ground. Sasuke jumped out of the way as a whole section of the wall landed directly where he'd been standing and looked back to see how the prince was doing. His stomach dropped; the area where the blond had been laying was completely covered with bricks and rubble. There was no way the prince had made it out alive.

A screech from above drew Sasuke's attention, and with a start he realized the dragon had already seen him. It was too late to test the blond's plan, and he'd dropped the flask somewhere on the ground by the fallen tower. He leapt behind a large area of rubble as a fireball shot towards him. He felt it skim by his new hiding area and was startled by how _hot_ it was. If that fire got any closer to him, he'd be burned to a crisp. He stared in horror as the fallen tower he was originally behind was hit by the flame and _melted_. He didn't know bricks could melt.

The raven sat frozen in horror as he realized that he was out of options. He'd gotten himself into a mess where the only way out was death. The idea paralyzed him, and he didn't move even though he knew he should.

"**Come out and face your death, little coward."** A voice boomed through the area, and it took a second for Sasuke to figure out it was the dragon talking. **"It will only hurt for a moment, and it will be a much more honorable death than sitting there hiding."**

Yes. The dragon was right. Death wouldn't be so bad, and no one could blame him for losing to a dragon. They were nearly impossible to kill, after all.

He heard a boom, and a small part of his brain that was still working registered it as being the dragon landing. **"Come,"** the dragon spoke again. **"You long for death, young pirate. Give up on your revenge. Accept your fate."**

The voice was hypnotizing. It was like the dragon could read his mind; it even knew about his revenge and why he was here in the first place. Sasuke took a few shaking steps out from his hiding place, turning to face the dragon. He didn't know why he'd been so afraid of it before; it was only there to help him.

"**Yes,"** the dragon purred. **"Do not be afraid, young Uchiha. Come closer, and give me what you have in your bag."**

Sasuke walked closer to the dragon, completely spellbound by its voice. He peeled the bag of his shoulder, holding it before him as an offering. This was fair payment; he would give the dragon what he had stolen from the castle, as well as his own riches, and in return the dragon would release him from the misery of living. He couldn't ask for a better way to die…

"Rogue!"

Sasuke blinked, turning his head from side to side. What had he been about to do again…?

His gaze stopped on the dragon in front of him. Shit. He almost dropped his bag, but held onto it, stopping just out of reach of the creature. Sasuke's heart hammered in his chest as he stood frozen, suddenly unsure of what to do.

"**Why did you stop, young Uchiha?"** Sasuke's head was swimming. The dragon's voice seemed to be pulling him back into the state of hypnosis he'd been in before, but something was stopping it. What was stopping it?

"Don't listen to it, bastard!" And suddenly the blond prince was _there_, and the spell had broken completely. The prince leapt over the dragon's tail, brandishing his sword, and the creature finally noticed him. Its attention dropped from Sasuke as it spun, swiping at the prince with its claws. The blond met the claw with his sword, and to Sasuke's surprise, it didn't break. The prince jumped back and ducked as the dragon swung his tail at him. He ran towards Sasuke, and only then did the raven realize he'd been standing stock still the whole time.

"Run!" The blond yelled, grabbing Sasuke's wrist in his hand and tugging him along after him, jumping behind where Sasuke had been hiding earlier as another ball of dragonfire flew at them.

"**Golden Prince,"** the dragon said after the fire died down. **"Give me your enchanted sword and I might spare your life."**

The prince jumped up, motioning for Sasuke to stay down, and ran out to meet the dragon again. "Your words won't work on me!" He yelled, and the raven couldn't help but watch. The blond ran toward the dragon as it breathed fire at him again, rolling to the side and dodging it. Sasuke could hardly believe this was the same man who he'd had to save before.

But it wouldn't last; the dragon charged the prince, and before he could dodge, it snapped its mouth around the blond, swallowing him. The dragon turned and leveled its eyes at Sasuke. It took a few steps towards the raven, who found himself – once more – spellbound by the dragon's gaze and unable to move. But before it could reach him, the dragon stopped, and Sasuke noticed its mouth moving as if something were trying to escape.

He watched, half in horror and half in fascination, as the tip of the blond's sword pieced out through the dragon's nose, and the creature let out a roar, spitting the prince out. The blond rolled away from the dragon, still clutching his weapon, before he struggled to his feet. Blood was dripping from the dragon's nose, but it looked more angry than wounded.

"**You will pay for this, Prince!"** It roared, opening its mouth, presumably to finish off the prince. But the blond moved with an inhuman speed towards the dragon's neck before it could release its flame, stabbing upwards with his sword into the scales where the golden glow was visible.

The dragon choked, and the glow of the fire disappeared. The prince pulled his sword out, releasing a stream of blood in his wake, before he crawled up the dragon's neck and stood atop its head. The creature looked like it was trying to say something, but the prince never let it. With a roar that sounded more like a cry of pain than one of victory, the blond plunged the enchanted sword through the dragon's skull, and it fell still.

Time sped back up as the prince finally relinquished his hold on the blade and collapsed to the ground. Sasuke ran to him, no longer questioning why he hadn't just left when he'd had the chance. He kneeled at the blond's side and saw that his eyes had fallen shut.

"Oy, idiot." He shook the other's shoulder. "Wake up."

The blond struggled and finally opened his eyes, giving Sasuke a crooked grin. "Now we're even," he croaked out. It took the raven a moment to figure out he was talking about the incident in the castle on the lake.

"Hn." And Sasuke had to look away before he did something stupid like smile back at the blond.

The prince struggled to sit up but his arms shook too much with the effort, and Sasuke lightly pushed him back down. "I'm fine," the blond mumbled. "That fight just took a lot more than I expected." His eyes were already starting to drift shut.

"Sleep. I doubt any more dragons will come in the next few hours."

"You'll stand watch, right?" The other's voice was getting softer by the minute.

"Hn. Don't worry, little prince. I owe you that much at least."

A faint frown appeared on the blond's face. "No…we're even…" His head drooped to the side. "And…call me Naruto…" But anything else he was going to say was cut off by his own snores.

Sasuke gazed down at him for a few moments, noticing how the last rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon seemed to land directly on the blond. He stood up when they disappeared and walked up to the dragon, then climbed atop its head. With more than a little effort, he pulled the prince's sword from its skull and jumped off. He wiped the blade on the dragon's scales and walked back to the prince, before slipping it back in its scabbard.

A weapon that could pierce through dragon scales was bound to have a powerful enchantment on it, and it would fetch a good price in the black market. But, Sasuke thought as he gathered the sleeping prince into his arms, he owed the blond to at least not steal his sword, and stand guard for a few hours.

He carried Naruto – he made a mental note to ask around about him – back into the tower where the Sleeping Princess had once slept and placed the blond on the bed. He took his bag off his shoulder and threw some more items in it – spells, gold, jewels, really whatever he could fit – and sat at the foot of the bed wide awake for the rest of the night, listening to the other breathe.

The prince woke at the first light of dawn. Sasuke heard him stir and stood up to stretch out his own tight muscles. "What time is it?" The blond asked groggily.

"Dawn," Sasuke responded, turning to look at the prince. He noticed that the rays of light from the sunrise seemed to directly hit Naruto, just as those from the sunset had.

The blond nodded, before yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "You gave me back my sword," he said, sounding surprised as his hand brushed past his hilt.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, but mostly ignored the comment. "We should go," he said, pushing back the thought that he'd said 'we' instead of 'you'.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, throwing his feet over the bed and standing up. Sasuke saw him wince, but neither of them mentioned it. "Who knows when the next dragon will show up?" He laughed weakly, and that reminded Sasuke of something.

"How come you weren't affected by what it said?"

Naruto threw him a grin. "Enchanted earplugs from the Witch of the Forest." Sasuke had no idea who that was. "Pretty neat huh? I would show you, but…uh…they kinda fell out when the thing tried to eat me." The blond scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Damn useful though; that voice sounded pretty loud even with them in."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed. Now that he thought about it, the dragon's voice was loud. It was just hard to concentrate on that when it was trying to convince him to walk to his own death. He shuddered at the thought as the blond started walking to the hidden stairwell. Sasuke grabbed his bag, throwing it over his shoulder and following Naruto.

"That was pretty cool though," the blond said as they descended the stairs together. "I never thought I'd ever have to actually fight a dragon, but I have to admit that was pretty intense. Maybe they'll call me 'Naruto the Dragon Slayer' now. What do you think?"

"Tch. Loser." Actually, Sasuke thought it was fairly likely the prince would get a nickname like that once word got out. Naruto was one of the few alive to actually kill a dragon, and he was probably the only one who did it completely singlehandedly. Despite himself, Sasuke was impressed.

Naruto ignored the comment, still lost in his dream world. "It would've been even cooler if I'd actually gotten a princess at the end of it, you know? That's how it's supposed to work."

"Hn." They crawled out of the castle and picked their way around the rubble, back to the destroyed forest of thorns.

"I really thought it would work out this time. How many people have this bad of luck three times in a row? It's practically unheard of." The prince went on.

"Yeah." Sasuke agreed; it was strange that Naruto had continued to fail, especially when it seemed he had such intimate knowledge of the damsels and their keepers. The raven thought that the prince should've knonw that they had already been saved based on everything else he knew.

"Well better luck next time, I guess." Sasuke looked over in shock and saw the blond grinning widely. He had some scrapes on his face, and Sasuke would bet the rest of his body was bruised and battered all over. Yet Naruto was still positive despite his situation.

"Yeah," he repeated finally, turning his head back to the front.

They had already reached the end of the forest, and Naruto stopped. Sasuke reached into his pocket and took out his black candle. "I thought you didn't have one?" The blond asked, but he didn't sound mad.

"I lied."

"Ah. Makes sense I suppose."

Sasuke paused. "I could take you wherever you needed to go. As payment for saving my life twice, that is."

Naruto shook his head, still looking positive. "Nah. I think I should probably walk. Figure out how to tell my dad I failed again."

A pang of guilt hit Sasuke, but he brushed it aside easily. He didn't ask again. "Well…see you around I guess."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed with an easy grin that made Sasuke's stomach flip over on itself.

He closed his eyes, picturing his ship where it was last docked, and lit the candle. The sensation that the world was being pulled out from under him overwhelmed Sasuke for a moment, then he felt his feet hit solid ground. He opened his eyes and saw his ship docked right in front of him. It wasn't until moments later, when he was storing the bag onboard, that he realized the blond had never asked for his name.


	5. By the Sea

**AN:**_ I hope you weren't too attaced to the pattern of fairy tale followed by plot. There will still be more fairy tales in this (it's a fairy tale au after all) but there might be several chapters between each one. As for this chapter: this is a spin on the_ original_ tale of the Little Mermaid. Disney basically took the whole "mermaid sells her voice to be with a prince" part of the story and ignored the parts they didn't like, so if the only Little Mermaid you know is their version then this will look _very_ different. Other than the descrition of Rapunzel's tower and the names in Sleeping Beauty, I've been using the original stories and tweaking them as opposed to taking from Disney. I suppose I should've warned you earlier, but oh well. Enjoy and drop a review!_

* * *

**By the Sea**

_ Once upon a time there lived a mermaid princess under the sea. She had always dreamed of seeing the sky, something that was only allowed after she turned eighteen. On the day of her birthday, she swam happily up to the surface, to feel the sun on her face for the first time. But when she arrived, the sky was black, and around her a storm was raging._

_ Through her disappointment, she saw a ship being tossed by the waves. Men were being thrown off the ship and drowning in the ocean she called home. Not wanting to see others taken by the water she loved, she swam to them and managed to save one: a human prince. She dragged him to shore and lay him on the beach, guarding him against the crashing waves until he woke._

_ During the night, she had been enchanted by the beauty of the human male, finding herself marveling at every detail. But when the morning sun broke through the clouds the next day, she realized with fear that humans might not find her looks appealing. Like all mermaids, her skin was pale and covered in scales, and her hair was the dark green of seaweed. She knew some of her kin had been called monsters and had been hunted. So when the prince opened his eyes, she disappeared, terrified, into the water._

_ She didn't return to the surface for days, but her thoughts remained consumed by the handsome human prince. Finally unable to contain it anymore, the princess went in search of the Sea Witch and asked to be turned into a human. The Witch agreed, but told the mermaid that every spell comes with a price. The princess would have to sacrifice her voice to the Witch in return for the potion that would transform her tail to feet and her scales to skin. _

_The Witch warned her to not take the potion, saying that the transformation would cause the princess more pain that she could possibly imagine; her feet would feel as though she were walking on glass with each step, and her skin would burn from even the smallest ray of sunlight. But the mermaid insisted that she wanted to see her prince again. Finally, the Witch warned her that she had three days to make the prince fall in love with her. If by sunset on the third day she shared the kiss of true love with her prince, the potion's effects would become permanent; her skin would darken to the color of a human's skin and stop burning in the sunlight, her feet would no longer bleed when she walked, and her voice would return. If, however, the prince did not fall in love with her by that time, she would be doomed to walk forever as if knives were pricking into her soles, bleeding and never healing, her skin would burn as if scalded by the sun but never change from its pale color, and her voice would remain lost. The only way to change it was to find a man who could fall in love with her._

_The princess accepted the potion despite the warnings and drank it as soon as she was on the beach where she'd taken her prince before. She immediately felt the effects of the potion as her body changed from mermaid to human. She changed into the clothes given to her by the Sea Witch and walked for the first time to find her prince. Her feet bled inside the shoes and her skin felt as though it were on fire, but at long last she came across a beautiful castle on the beach._

_The prince didn't recognize her, but took pity on her haggard appearance and let her stay in the castle. Even though she couldn't speak, he found himself drawn to her and he invited her to the ball that evening. She danced the night away with him and the other nobles, despite her feet bleeding the entire time. And even though everything was exactly how she'd planned, the prince danced half the night with a different girl._

_The sea princess didn't give up hope, and continued to visit him the next two days. The prince took her around the town and told her about his life. He explained the duties he had to uphold, and how he had accidentally defied them by falling in love with a poor girl he'd met on the streets. The mermaid princess was unable to speak her horror, and by the end of three days the prince confronted his parents and told him about his love for the girl he'd spent most of the ball with days before. To the princess' dismay, the king and queen gave him their consent to marry the girl._

_The sun set on the third day as the prince and the girl from the temple announced their engagement and kissed passionately in front of the court. The forgotten mermaid threw herself from the tallest tower into the sea, hoping to end her life. To her despair she couldn't die, and she remembered the warning from the Sea Witch that doomed her to live forever in pain until she can find a man who loves her in return._

* * *

Naruto sipped his water, glaring at the sun high in the sky. He'd arrived in the port the night before and run into a group of 'friendly' merchants. He'd drank too much and woke up that morning to find his pockets considerably emptier than they had been before. He cursed the port for catering to thieves and pirates alike, but luckily he had enough back up gold to pay for his room and meals.

The journey to the sea had been more of an avoidance tactic rather than a planned adventure. Even a few days of walking after defeating the dragon – a feat that had somehow already managed to make its way around the surrounding villages – he wasn't ready to confess his failures again. He opened the book and found that the nearest tale was the Mermaid Princess.

The Mermaid Princess had been even lower on his list of options than the Sleeping Princess was. It wasn't for the same reasons though; there was no evil Witch or dragon to defeat now. No, his reason was that he hated the story of the Mermaid Princess. As a child, he'd cried the first time he'd read the story and refused to look at it again for years.

He supposed it would be better if he were the one to break the spell from the princess and stop her from feeling pain, but somewhere in his heart he knew he wasn't the right man to do that. Naruto couldn't say _how_ he knew; he just did.

Nevertheless, here he was.

Naruto finished his drink and dropped a couple of coins on the table before grabbing his sword and sweeping out. He wandered around the market, glancing about to see if he could find a woman with pale skin and green hair. He wasn't positive the mermaid princess would be at this port, but the last time he'd checked – a few days before his birthday, he'd had the Witch of the Forest confirm all the locations in the book – she was in the area. At the very least, she never ventured far from the sea or the original prince's castle, so it was a start.

He was in the midst of deciding what _exactly_ he was planning to do when he found the mute princess, when he overheard a familiar voice. He turned and ducked out of sight just in time to see the raven haired rogue to walk around the corner.

"…Sell what you can here and collect the profits. We're setting off at sunset, is that clear?" The raven was talking to two men flanking him.

The one to the left bowed slightly. "Yes, captain." He disappeared into the crowd before Naruto could blink.

The one on the raven's right spoke next. "So what's next Sasuke? Any bars you want me to shake down? Men to intimidate?" He was a brunet with strange tattoos on his face just below his eyes and looked as happy as the raven was passive.

"Go find the rest of the crew and tell them they have until sunset. And call me captain."

"Yes captain, sir!" The brunet gave a ridiculous salute and ran off. Naruto laughed to himself at the look on the raven's face. He seemed to be at his wit's end. It was good for him, the blond decided.

"So," he said, stepping out of his hiding space. "Your name's Sasuke then." He relished the look of surprise on the raven's face at seeing him, even though it was masked immediately.

"Hn," the man named Sasuke responded. "What of it?" The raven continued walking.

Naruto fell in step beside him. "Well it gives me something to call you other than rogue. Gotta say it's a nice change."

He didn't have to look to know the other was rolling his eyes. This was only their fourth time meeting, but Naruto already felt like he knew the raven. "What do you want?"

"Just wondering if you're here to mess up my saving the next princess."

Sasuke snorted. "As if I would do such a thing."

Naruto shrugged, trying to maintain the nonchalant tone of voice. "Well you've already done it three times already."

"Coincidence."

"No such thing." Sasuke turned the corner and Naruto almost kept walking straight. He finally caught back up.

"It's not my fault you believe in false fate, little prince."

"Hey! I called you by your name, the least you can do is call me by mine."

"Your options are 'little prince', 'idiot prince', or 'loser prince'. Take your pick." Sasuke was smirking.

"Bastard…" Naruto growled in warning.

"Captain!" A voice interrupted. They both turned around to see a large man running towards them. "Lee got in another fight and was thrown in jail. The guards said they won't release him till morning. What do you want me to do?"

"Again?" Sasuke brought his hand over his face in an exasperated manner. Naruto listened in silence as the two of them discussed how they were gonna deal with this Lee guy who'd apparently done this multiple times. The gears in his brain worked to discover the source of his nagging suspicion in regards to Sasuke.

Everything snapped into place the moment the other ran off. "You're Sasuke Uchiha!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at the other openly.

Sasuke Uchiha, also known as the Black Pirate – or sometimes the Black Captain – was a well-known criminal throughout the modern countries. The Five Country Alliance that the Fire Country was part of had declared that anyone who captured the captain and his crew was required to bring him to a tribunal where the five monarchs would decide his fate.

He was known for ravaging and burning port-side towns, destroying military vessels from several different countries, and he was accused of killing the prince of the Water Kingdom. If Naruto had captured him back in Rapunzel's tower, he wouldn't have needed to continue journeying around to find a princess in far off lands; all the lands would've offered him their princesses' hands in marriage already. He'd defeated a _dragon_ and that hadn't happened; that's how big of a deal the Black Pirate was.

Sasuke hissed and grabbed Naruto's arm, dragging the blond down an alley. "Keep it down, idiot."

Naruto ignored the warning, instead remembering snippets from their interactions before. _"Black tunic, faded boots, and a cutlass – not to mention your apparent love of treasure – all leading to one conclusion: you're a pirate."_

"Rogues_ like me love looting for gold and jewels. This forest is a paradise, and despite what you may think the princesses won't be returning. It'll be full of others like me in a day or two."_

"_**Why did you stop, young Uchiha?" **_

All the clues had been there before. But he had one question. "Why is the Black Pirate travelling around and stealing from princesses on land? Those castles you went to were nowhere near the ocean."

"Tch. None of your business, prince." Sasuke scoffed. "And it's captain to you."

"It's weird," Naruto continued, completely ignoring the other. "Because if I had known who you were, I would've just captured you before. And then this wouldn't keep happening. I could've chosen from all twelve of those princesses if you hadn't gotten in the way!"

Sasuke turned his cold glare on the blond. "Capturing me wouldn't have stopped you from arriving too late."

"I don't think lateness was the problem."

"Tch." Sasuke made that same irritating noise with his tongue and stalked deeper into the alley. Naruto noticed that the sun was starting to dip closer to the horizon; it wouldn't be long before the pink hues of sunset covered the sky.

He pushed forward with what he wanted to say, knowing he had minutes before the raven left him to go god knows where. "I've known there was something off about you for a while, and now I have solid evidence. You definitely did something to prevent me from rescuing any of those princesses."

The glare the raven shot him would've staggered a weaker man, but Naruto held his ground. "I've told you once, and I'll tell you again: I don't care about your little adventure or stupid desire to rescue princesses. I would like nothing more than to never see your face again. Now, if you'll excuse me." He swept past Naruto, as if that were final.

The blond's hand shot out and before he knew it, he had grabbed hold of Sasuke's arm. The raven stared down at the offense with a poisonous look. "Where are you in a rush to go, _Sasuke_?" He emphasized the name on purpose. It worked exactly how he'd planned; the raven turned his venomous stare to Naruto's face. "I'm not done with you yet. Plus you can't even leave with one of your men still in prison –"

"I'm a pirate; I don't have to obey the rules." Sasuke jerked his hand out of Naruto's grasp. "Goodbye, idiot prince." He managed to make it out of the alley without being stopped again.

Naruto glared at the irritating man's back as it disappeared. Sunset was fast approaching, and the pirate would be gone, leaving the blond with his questions. An idea half formed in his brain, and he made his way to the pier. If the pirate refused to admit he'd done something wrong, then he would just have to find out for himself.

* * *

The ship with black sails was stupidly easy to find, which probably meant the port he was in catered openly to pirates. The guard sitting in the watchtower above the sails – Naruto had no idea what anything was called on a ship, never having needed to board one – was staring out to the ocean, and he was able to slip onboard unnoticed.

He found the stairs and made his way down, looking in each room until he found what looked like a rarely-used storage area. There was a small cubbyhole hidden behind barrels that were probably filled with blood or something equally creepy, but Naruto made himself as comfortable as he could.

The slight shaking of the boat threw off his balance, even while sitting, and he belatedly remembered one of the merchants who had come to the palace saying something about 'sea legs'. Naruto didn't think he had any. He tried placing a hand on the wall next to him for support, but it was moving too and didn't help.

A collection of muffled shouts drifted down from above, and Naruto temporarily forgot his discomfort. He could hear people running around upstairs, and he figured that meant the crew was back and they'd broken their man out of jail. No one seemed keen on coming downstairs, and Naruto smiled smugly at how well his plan was working.

The smile slid off his face when the ship lurched beneath him. It creaked as it moved, and with a jolt of his stomach, he realized that it shook so much more when it was moving than when it was docked.

He tried to hold it in for as long as possible, but barely a few minutes had passed before he was leaning out the window, releasing his overpriced lunch into the water below. He turned his head back to land, and saw it already fading into the distance. This ship really was as fast as the legends said.

The thought faded to nothingness as another jerk of the ship had him getting sick once more. He was so busy feeling his own discomfort, that he forgot he was supposed to be hiding until he heard a loud thump behind him followed with a "what the hell?!"

Naruto was violently torn from the window and flung against the wall. "Who the fuck are you?" The words came from the brunet with tattoos on his face that Naruto had seen earlier that day.

He tried to think of something witty to say in response, but his face turned green and the man abruptly released him just in time.

"That's disgusting." Naruto couldn't find it in him to disagree. "Whatever." The man grabbed Naruto by his collar, hauling him upright and dragging him back to the stairs. The blond would've protested, but the vertigo he felt upon walking was too much.

He wasn't entirely sure how they made it up the stairs, but suddenly the faint purple of sunset filled his vision, and it was so much brighter than the darkness in the storage room.

"Captain Uchiha!" The tattooed man yelled, and Naruto watched as the rest of the crew seemed to notice him for the first time.

The raven appeared at the top of the stairs Naruto hadn't paid attention to upon entering the ship. "What, Kiba? I told you –" Whatever he was going to say dropped away when Sasuke finally made eye contact with Naruto.

Naruto held his composure as much as he could, secretly grateful that the man named Kiba hadn't relinquished his grasp on his collar.

"Why are you on my ship, little prince?"

"'M as tall as you are, I'm not little." He managed to say.

"I found him with the canons, captain." The tattooed man spoke. Sasuke gave him a nod, and to Naruto's discomfort, his collar was dropped and he was left to balance on his own.

Sasuke took a step forward, and Naruto's world swayed for a second. He stumbled but managed to stay upright. "I asked you why you were on my ship."

Naruto glared at him. "I told you we weren't done. I wanted to see how you were sabotaging me."

The raven reached out and grabbed a sword from the nearest crew member, holding it steadily before him as he took yet another step forward. Naruto stumbled backwards and, to his embarrassment, fell to the floor. The sword was lowered, and the blond felt cold steel on his chin.

"Pathetic," the raven muttered, and somehow Naruto knew the word was for his ears alone. The sword was removed and the raven straightened up, no longer meeting Naruto's eyes. "Kiba, lock him in the brig. I don't want to hear any more about this idiot prince."

"Aye, captain."

The blond was shuffled roughly off the ground and dragged once more down the stairs into darkness, his eyes never once leaving the raven's back.


	6. Ship at Sea

**AN: **_Sorry for the delay! School, you know? I would've gotten this up sooner, but the second half of it didn't want to be written until today. I briefly mention the next chapter's fairy tale at the end of this one, but if you want to look it up ahead of time it's called the White Cat (French). Enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think! I live for your reviews. :)_

* * *

**Ship at Sea**

_ Once upon a time there was a young prince who longed for adventure. The king, tired of hearing his son complain about how boring life was in the castle, sent him away to find a bride worthy of becoming queen. The prince was ordered to find a princess as beautiful as the sun above, as gentle as a summer breeze, and as kind as his mother had been._

_ The prince set off on his journey, determined to find a maiden who matched the criteria his father set for him. Months into his adventure, he hadn't found a single girl, princess or poor farm girl, who was worthy of becoming the future queen, let alone his bride. In despair, the prince wandered aimlessly into a forest, until he realized he was utterly lost._

_ He tried in vain to escape the trees, but the more he struggled, the more the vines seemed to tangle around him. Finally, after ages, he managed to make his way into a clearing. There, in the center, was a large tower that seemed completely abandoned. The prince stared at the tower in confusion, until a movement at the single window caused him to hide behind the nearest tree. Standing at the window of the tower was the most beautiful maiden he'd ever seen._

_ The prince wanted to approach her, but before he could, a movement to his right caused him to stay still. An old woman appeared from the trees, carrying a large basket. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" She called as she reached the bottom of the tower. The prince watched in amazement as the beautiful girl lowered the longest braid of hair he'd ever seen in his life. His amazement grew as he watched the witch climb the hair and disappear into the window._

_ At that moment he knew that girl was his destined princess, and he wanted nothing more than to climb the tower and ask for her hand in marriage, but the witch's presence prevented him from doing just that. He waited through the night, and the next morning the witch climbed down from the window and disappeared again into the forest. He stepped out of the trees and walked up to the tower, before crying the words he'd heard the witch yell: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" The golden braid dropped, and he climbed up to meet his true love._

* * *

The question was eating at him. Sasuke had tried pushing it to the back of his mind, but it still managed to break free and consume his thoughts as he manned the ship. He had avoided going down into the brig to visit their prisoner, instead sending Kiba to take care of him. According to the brunet, Naruto had gotten over his earlier seasickness and was now as talkative as ever.

He tried to not let it bother him how quickly his first mate had seemed to befriend the prince. He tried to forget the question that was popping into his dreams. He tried to concentrate on the goal at hand.

He failed.

It wasn't until the end of the fourth day at sea that he finally gave in to his curiosity. He waited until Kiba had taken supper down to the prisoner and snuck down. He wasn't entirely sure why he felt the need to sneak around on his own ship, but he would rather not have his crew know what he was up to.

To his dismay – though not shock – the blond was whistling when he got down there. He cleared his throat with an "hn" to get the other's attention and was rewarded with an unwavering blue gaze.

"Sasuke?" The other asked, as if he wasn't sure he was seeing correctly.

"Hn. Captain Uchiha to you." Sasuke retorted, ignoring the shiver that travelled down his spine at the other's casual way of addressing him.

Naruto ignored him, of course. "What are you doing down here? Ready to let me out?"

"Not a chance."

The blond tilted his head to the side. "Ok…" Damn, most people would look ridiculous wearing such an open expression. But Naruto made it look –

"I have a question, and you will answer it." He crushed the thoughts before they could even form.

"Bossy now that we're on your ship, aren't we?" Naruto didn't look intimidated by his commanding tone. Sasuke felt his eyebrow twitch. Normally when he spoke that way, his crew – and anyone else really – did exactly what he asked of them. The fact this prince didn't irritated him beyond belief.

"Why were you always late?"

"What?"

He waved one hand impatiently. "To rescue the princess or whatever. Why were you always late?"

Naruto frowned. "See, that's the thing. I shouldn't have been. I did everything the book said and –" He broke off as if realizing he'd said too much.

"The book?"

"Um…" Naruto dropped eye contact, no doubt trying to hide his expression. It didn't work.

"The book?" Sasuke repeated. He wasn't going to let the prince get off so easily on this one. Not when he was finally getting an answer to the question that had been keeping him up at night. He was going to sit here and wait for the blond to give him a satisfactory answer, or he was going to keep waking up continuing to think this was all an elaborate scheme to sabotage him before he could complete his goal.

Naruto's face was screwed up in concentration before he finally relaxed with an exaggerated sigh. "Ok. Well, what harm can it do now, right?" He spoke more to himself than Sasuke. "There's this book, see, and it has all the princesses' stories in it. So I use it to find the princesses and try to save them."

"If you had a book like that, then you would know that the stories had already ended." Sasuke retorted.

"Well…See the stories would disappear if the princesses had already been rescued, but the weird thing is they hadn't disappeared until _after_ I ran into you and the princess was gone."

Sasuke frowned. "What purpose would they serve if the story just disappeared when they ended?" That didn't make sense to him. Wouldn't they need to know how it ended?

"It doesn't matter _how_ they end, though. Just that they _do_."

"But don't you want to know how?" The good stuff was at the end; like what had been left behind to pillage.

"No. Because I'm trying to _be _the ending. So if someone else got there first then it just means I have to pick a new story." Naruto looked horribly confused at this point. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

Sasuke ignored the question. "Where is this book you speak of then?" He had a theory he needed to test. Naruto pointed to the wall behind Sasuke, and the pirate turned to see all of the prince's belongings hanging up.

"It's in the bag."

He riffled through the bag, pulling out a large tome. For a moment, he stared wordlessly at the cover.

"It's real, you know. The stories change."

But Sasuke didn't care what the prince had to say about the stupid book. Because he already knew. Without another word to the blond, he tucked it under his arm and all but ran up the stairs, ignoring the shout of "hey!" behind him.

Once in his own quarters, he locked the door and pulled out one of his drawers, revealing a secret compartment. He carefully took out a book and placed it on his table next to Naruto's. Once they were side-by-side he sunk into the chair.

There was no doubting it; the books were identical.

Carefully, he opened both covers, looking at the ever-changing table of contents. He selected a story at random and opened both books to the same page before scanning them individually.

Where the covers, titles, and page numbers were the same, the stories were different. Sasuke could tell that at first glance. But he flipped through several different stories before confirming his suspicions. The blond's version of the book started back at the beginning, before the princesses were cursed, and ended before the prince rescued the princess. His, however, started with the prince beginning his journey and ended with happily ever after. Together, the books completed the stories.

The blond prince arriving at the same location was another mystery that should be solved, but this at least answered the question of how the blond knew about the princesses at all. He also noticed, as he flipped back to the table of contents, that there were a couple of stories that weren't the same. The prince still had stories that he knew were finished, and his own book was missing stories that he suspected had yet to meet their halfway point.

Why the delay though? Was the magic in Naruto's book worn down? No. Sasuke didn't think magic could go bad. But, of course, witches were devious creatures and so he couldn't really be sure. Perhaps there was some kind of time spell on it that prevented the prince from knowing the exact date a story ended. That seemed more reasonable.

Resigning himself to the fact he couldn't just ignore the prince, he picked up both books and a candle and made his way back down to where the blond was locked up. Naruto didn't look happy to see him. "Took you long enough! Dammit," he mumbled to himself. "I knew I shouldn't have told you; now you're gonna steal the rest of the princesses from me too."

So he was still on that. "How can you still think I'm the one stealing the princesses from you? I've already told you; I'm not."

"You haven't _proven_ it."

Sasuke resisted the urge to slap his hand against his forehead. "Idiot prince, if I were to have princesses here what would I do with them?"

"I don't know. Keep them locked up so you can have your wicked way with them."

This was impossible. "There is so much wrong with your theory, I don't even know where to start." The blond was still pouting, so Sasuke sighed. "First of all: where would these princesses be? The best place to keep people would be down here. In the brig. And in case you didn't notice; you're all alone." Naruto snorted, looking like he was about to say something, but Sasuke raised his hand to stop him. "Second of all: it's bad luck to have a woman onboard. Every sailor knows that. Keeping a princess on this ship, let alone multiple princesses, would be asking for a disaster, and I'm not an idiot like you."

"Bad luck?"

"And third," Sasuke spoke over him, "I have no desire to 'steal princesses' from you or anyone else."

"Then how the hell do you know the locations in my book?"

_That_ was the question Sasuke had been waiting for. It was the same question he'd been asking himself every night since the second encounter he'd had with the prince. It was the question he now had half an answer to.

In response to Naruto, Sasuke slammed the two books down on the ground. The blond walked over, crouching to see them from the other side of the bars. Sasuke ignored the smooth expanse of skin on the back of the prince's neck and instead crouched down to join him.

"There are two…" Naruto breathed in wonder. He looked up at Sasuke. "So you have one too."

"Not quite." The raven flipped open both books, bring the candle closer so the words could be seen. Naruto leaned in to the light, quietly reading for a few minutes.

He let out a soft whistle as he sat back. "Wow. It's like we each only had half the book."

"Exactly."

They sat there silently absorbing the new information until Naruto spoke again. "Where did you get yours?"

"It was given to me by a witch." He wasn't sure why he was trusting the blond so much; this book was his secret weapon. It was something his crew didn't even know about. Yet, the prince had a similar thing. So maybe, just this once, he could be trusted too.

"Mine was too." Neither of them ask the burning question of _who_; witches were dangerous, and revealing the one who had created a magical item was asking for trouble. So instead they sat there awkwardly, neither of them quite looking at the other, while they tried to figure out where they stood.

Finally, Sasuke made a decision. "You can sleep in here or with the crew, it doesn't matter. You'll be let off the ship the next time we reach land, so don't cause any problems or get in anyone's way." He stood up, taking his own book as he went. The blond stared up at him, not moving from where he was still crouched, even when Sasuke pulled out the keys and unlocked the door. "Well, goodnight then." He turned to leave.

"Wait." He didn't have to turn to know that Naruto had stood and was staring at him through the bars. "You don't think this is coincidence either, do you?" Sasuke didn't respond. "Then why would you just let me go? Wouldn't it be better to wait around and see what the books have to say? Aren't you the least bit curious at all?"

He was, but he wasn't about to admit that. "Tomorrow morning report to Kiba above deck. Now that you're not a prisoner, you're just a useless mouth to feed." He left before the other had a chance to respond.

* * *

When Naruto woke up the next morning, he stared around at the bars, sure he'd been dreaming about what happened the night before. A tentative push against the door revealed that he hadn't, and he made his way up the stairs.

The sun was barely up, but the ship was already a flurry of activity. Men were rushing back and forth yelling instructions at each other and throwing ropes to and fro. Naruto managed to make his way up the second set of stairs where a familiar brunet was standing in front of a large wheel.

"Morning, princess. Took you long enough to get up." Kiba eyed him up and down before coming to a conclusion. "You can't work in those clothes."

"Huh?" Naruto stared down at himself. "What's wrong with my clothes?" He was wearing his usual orange cape over his traditional pants and shirt.

Kiba gestured vaguely. "You look like a prince."

"I _am_ a prince."

"Exactly." When Naruto didn't respond, Kiba sighed and continued. "We're pirates; we like to steal. A defenseless prince sitting in the midst of us is too tempting. Therefore, you're changing so you fit in."

"I guess that makes sense…" Naruto trailed off as the brunet dragged him back down both sets of stairs into a room that looked more like a dragon's treasure nest than a storage room. He stood there patiently while Kiba sifted through the trunks – there were so many – grabbing something out of them occasionally.

"Here." He thrust a pile of cloth into Naruto's arms. "I'm afraid we don't have spare pants small enough – we need to wear something too, you know – so I threw a belt in there. Put that on and join me above deck."

"Above…deck?"

"Yeah. Right now we're below deck, so you want to go above deck." Without any further explanation, Kiba disappeared up the stairs.

Naruto stripped off what he was wearing, leaving it in a pile in the corner, and put on the clothes Kiba had given him; a simple white tunic that he tucked in to the admittedly too large sky blue pants. The belt Kiba had given him was the same bright orange as his cloak. With a grin as to what Sasuke would no doubt have to say about that, Naruto ascended the stairs to 'above deck'.

Kiba was there waiting for him with a bucket and a mop. "Since you're new and all, we're just gonna have you swab the deck. Today it's supposed to be Shika's job, but he's a lazy ass so congratulations."

"Ahh, Kiba you don't have to be so loud about it." A voice Naruto recognized instantly came from above. Both men jumped before looking up. The voice belonged to a man with his hair pulled into a spikey ponytail, who had been presumably sleeping on one of those wooden poles that held the sails.

"God Shika, you're always –"

"Shikamaru?!" Naruto exclaimed shocked. "What are you doing here?"

The man above started before leaping down from where he was lying and bowing low to the deck. "Prince Naruto, I didn't expect to see you here."

Naruto stared down at the son of his father's advisor in shock. "I thought you were exploring the world so you could become a scholar or something."

Shikamaru stood back up, facing Naruto as he scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well, uh, I was. And then I kind of ended up here."

Kiba chose this moment to step between them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys _know _each other?" He looked back and forth between them, until Naruto finally piped up.

"Yeah. He's the son of my dad's best advisor."

"Your dad?" Kiba turned to the other. "But, Shika, I thought your dad was advisor to the Yellow King?"

"He is."

"But that would mean…" Kiba trailed off before suddenly pointing an accusatory finger at Naruto. "You're the Golden Prince?!" Naruto nodded dumbly. "Whoa! Did you really kill that Chimera and save the kingdom? That would be so intense!"

The prince grinned despite himself; Sasuke may not know who he was, but at least his crew did. "Yeah, I did. It was a lot easier than the dragon though…"

"YOU KILLED A DRAGON?!"

Shikamaru stuffed his fingers into his ears. "Too loud," he complained to no one.

"Um, yeah. Didn't Sasuke tell you? He was there…"

"Sas – the captain?! No! He didn't tell us anything! When was this? Where were you? Did the captain help you or did you have to save his ass?"

The brunet was speaking at an unnatural speed that Naruto wasn't used to. With wide eyes, he turned to Shikamaru. "Is he always like this?" The other just nodded.

"I can't believe it!" Kiba was blathering. "We had an _actual_ real life dragon slayer in our midst and didn't even know it! That is so cool! Did you take any of its treasure?"

"No. I think Sasuke did, though."

"So we have _actual_ dragon treasure on this ship? Wow! Why didn't he tell me? And here I'm his first mate!"

"Kiba," Shikamaru cut in. "If you're going to have him swab the decks, you better do that soon. The captain won't be happy if he sees all three of us lazing around."

The brunet spun around poking his finger into Shikamaru's nose. "Oh you are one to talk. You do realize we're having him do _your_ chores, you lazy-ass book reader." The other shrugged, and Kiba thrust the bucket at Naruto, who managed to catch it without sloshing any of the water out the top. "Come on, Golden Boy, we have decks to swab."

As it turned out, "swabbing the decks" really meant "mopping the floor", and Naruto ended up having to mop all the floors, both above and below deck. The task took him the entire day, with only a short break for lunch where Kiba popped down with food and unlimited questions on his adventures. When he talked with Kiba, it made his adventures sound like fun rather than fruitless searches for a princess.

He finished in time for dinner was going to eat it alone when he found himself being dragged into the mess hall by Kiba. "What are you doing?" But the brunet just ignored him in favor of plopping Naruto in the seat next to his.

"Dig in."

The crew attacked their food with fervor, and Naruto soon relaxed and started to eat as well. It was nice, listening these men argue and fight over their food. So different from the quiet, polite meals decorum demanded at the palace. Soon enough, though, someone brought up the elephant in the room. "So what's he doing out of the brig then?" A man with long hair and strangely empty eyes asked.

"Captain's orders," Kiba answered. "Besides, he's our new deck swabber since this guy is useless." He emphasized his point by slamming his hand into Shikamaru's back, causing the other to nearly spit out his food. "Plus, my new friend here slayed a dragon, and the captain didn't even tell us about it."

"Whoa really?" A bushy browed man wearing all green leaned forward, delight clearly written across his face. "Will you tell us about it?"

"Um, sure." Naruto told his tale the second time that day to a completely captivated audience. They oohhed and aahhed at all the right places, and for the first time in his life Naruto knew what it felt like to be popular.

By the time his story was over and everyone had exhausted their questions for him – he had politely left out most of Sasuke's role, knowing there was a reason the captain didn't tell the story himself – the moon was high in the sky. Kiba walked with him back down to the brig after they bid their farewells to everyone else.

"You sure you wanna keep sleeping down here?"

Naruto nodded. "Those guys are great and all; I'm just not used to sharing a room." He hesitated before asking the question that had been eating at his mind all night. "Hey, uh, did you really mean what you said before?"

"Huh? Which thing?"

"That we were friends."

Kiba looked taken aback. "Yeah, of course I did." Naruto felt a smile tug at his lips. "What? It's not a big deal, right?"

"I've just never had someone say they were my friend before."

"Really? Well, I guess that makes me your first real friend then, huh?" He slapped Naruto's shoulder. "Sleep well, ok? I'll get you tomorrow in time for breakfast." He shot Naruto a bright grin before disappearing. The blond fell asleep thinking it wasn't such a bad thing he got captured on the pirate ship.

Over the next few days, Naruto helped out with the various chores, learning new skills like deck swabbing and sail rigging. He was woken up early each morning by Kiba, and worked until sundown when he would join the rest of the crew for dinner in the mess hall and listened to their stories. Sometimes they asked him about his own adventures, but more often than not, he was able to listen to theirs. From the sounds of it, Sasuke wasn't a bad captain – even though he rarely ate with the rest of his crew anymore – and they never felt the need to overthrow him. He was also less cruel than the tales Naruto had heard before made him out to be; he tended to let the innocent live and was averse to the spilling of unnecessary blood.

And though Naruto didn't see the captain himself, he felt that he belonged here with the crew. The knowledge that Sasuke wanted to drop him off next time they hit port didn't sit well with him. But by the end of the first week, Naruto had all but forgotten about Sasuke's promise to get rid of him.

Which is why a knock to his bars that night woke him up with a start.

"What the –?"

"Wake up, idiot prince." Sasuke was standing there, holding a candle and his copy of the book.

Naruto sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily. "What's going on?"

Sasuke opened the door, tossing Naruto's bag at his feet with a clatter. "One of your stories has a new ending that just appeared in my book. It's two days from now."

That got his attention. "Which one?" Naruto stood up, grabbing his own book from the bag and flipping it open.

"The Cat Princess. Hurry up and get your sword."

Naruto looked up confused. "You're letting me come with you?"

"The sooner you realize I'm not stealing princesses from you, the sooner I can get you off my ship." The blond's heart sank; he liked being on the ship, and he wasn't ready to leave. "I already told Kiba I was leaving and taking you with me. Grab your things; you won't be coming back."

He couldn't find a good reason to argue with the raven; after all, it was true he snuck on board with the original intention of finding out why Sasuke was where the princesses should be. And as much as he liked life on the ship, he needed to return home to his kingdom soon. He had a duty to fulfill. The raven set the candle on the deck, pulling a black one out from his shirt.

"Tell the crew I said goodbye when you get back," he said as he walked forward, strapping his sword around his hips and throwing the bag over his shoulders.

"Hn," Sasuke responded. The raven grabbed his wrist, dropping his other hand so the black candle was lit. There was a rush, and Naruto felt the floorboards disappear under his feet. He only wished he could've spent longer with his new friends.


	7. The Palace of the Cats

**AN: **_I had a bit of a busy weekend, which is why this took until today to finish. Warning on this one: I took quite a few liberties with the fairy tale the White Cat. In the original, the youngest son meets the white cat for the first time when he has to find the tiny lapdog, and the three missions last a year a piece. In my version, the eldest son gets the princess, doesn't meet her till the third task, and the missions last three months a pop. Also, the original (well the version I read as a child. it might not be the original) didn't tell us anything about why she was put under a spell, so I basically stole Snow White. As long as you accept that, then this chapter will be fine. Lol. Enjoy and drop a review! I would love to hear what you guys think!_

* * *

**The Palace of the Cats**

_Once upon a time there lived a princess who was so beautiful, tales were told across the land. Word travelled far and wide and eventually reached the ears of a jealous Witch. The Witch went in search of the princess who dared to be fairer than her._

_ She disguised herself as a lost traveler when she came across the palace where the princess lived. She used magic to create a wicked storm before knocking on the door. The princess, in her kindness, took pity on the poor woman and invited her in out of the cold and the rain._

_ Once she was inside, the Witch was able to see how true the rumors of the princess were. Her jealousy took control, and in a rage she revealed her true identity. The princess was stunned when the lost traveler turned out to be an evil Witch. Unchallenged, the Witch cast a spell on the princess that turned her into a white cat. Her attendants too turned into cats, and the palace was frozen in time. The princess was doomed to stay that way for all of eternity, unless she could find a man who was so deeply in love with her that he was willing to cut off her head and break the spell._

* * *

Lost. That was the first word that came to Naruto's mind while Sasuke angrily poured over their maps. The blond had been sent away when he first tried to help, having been told that he was "more trouble than you're worth and you're lucky I even deemed you worthy enough to come along with me, stupid prince; never forget that".

In the pirate's defense, it was most likely Naruto's fault they were lost in the first place. He _knew_ the candles didn't work unless the user was fully focused on the destination, and yet he had let his mind stray to the ship and crew he was leaving behind. As a result, they had landed halfway between their destination and source. Sasuke had yelled at him for wasting the last of the candle before ripping Naruto's book and maps out of his hand and plotting their route from there. Alone. Because no matter what, he still refused to let the prince help.

Naruto sighed loudly and kicked a pebble down the path. It bounced its way down before hitting a tree. Bored, he kicked another, trying to hit a tree further along. This continued for a while until a crinkling of paper broke him out of his new world.

"Stop." Sasuke was staring at him over top the books, a murderous gleam in his eyes.

"Well you won't let me help. What am I supposed to do: just sit here?"

"Yes." More crinkling, and then the raven was buried again.

Naruto flopped onto the ground, grabbing a rock with his hand and rolling it between his fingers. He tossed it in the air and caught it a few times before a new game occurred to him. With a sly glance at Sasuke – who was still reading the damn maps – Naruto threw the pebble, hitting the raven square in the chest before turning his head and whistling nonchalantly.

"I will murder you." When Naruto turned his head, he saw the other glared daggers at him. The blond gulped, wondering how the game had seemed like such a good idea earlier when it was clearly anything but.

"Heh," he laughed weakly, mentally beating himself up.

The raven continued to glare. "What could possibly possess you to do that?"

"Um…" Naruto floundered. "I really…don't know."

With what looked like a good deal of mental effort, Sasuke composed himself and stood up. "There's a town nearby. We can purchase horses and still reach the palace just in time."

The raven started walking, and Naruto had to jump up and jog a few steps to catch him. "Who are we racing against? I forgot to ask earlier." That wasn't true; he just hadn't wanted to draw the other's anger any more than he already had.

"The prince who is going to 'steal your princess' and force you to continue to follow me around. If we hurry I can be rid of you sooner. Now shut up and walk."

Naruto immediately regretted asking. They walked in silence the rest of the way to the village and split up; Sasuke going to find saddles, and Naruto looking for where to purchase horses. Naruto found a place easily. Unfortunately, they only had one left.

"She's a good mare," the dealer stated. "And she can probably carry you both to where you need to go, but I'm not expecting a new herd until next week."

A week was too long. "We'll take her," Naruto responded. He highly doubted Sasuke would be pleased about the lack of two horses, but there was nothing else he could've done. He met up with the raven, who seemed to have similar luck when it came to saddles. Thankfully.

"I was only able to find one –" He paused. "Where's your horse?"

"Well, about that…"

"No." The look of horror on Sasuke's face indicated that he'd figured it out.

"They only had one. The guy said she could carry both of us to the cats' palace," Naruto reasoned.

"We are not sharing a horse."

"Do you have another candle?" Sasuke remained silent. "Then we're sharing a horse."

At that moment the mare – Yuki, the dealer had said her name was – snorted. Sasuke jumped back, nearly dropping the saddle on the ground. Naruto looked from him to Yuki and back again. "Sasuke, are you afraid of horses?"

"No," was the quick reply. Too quick. "I just haven't been around them very much." He admitted when Naruto refused to look away.

Naruto tied Yuki to the nearby post and walked over, taking the saddle from Sasuke's hands. "It's ok, I grew up around them. Don't worry about it."

"Hn." To his surprise, a faint pink blush graced the other's cheeks. Naruto looked away, unsure as to why the sight affected him. He saddled the horse in relative silence, feeling Sasuke's gaze on his back the whole time, then untied Yuki from the post before mounting up and guiding her closer to the pirate.

"Come on." The look on the other's face would've killed a lesser man. "You said you haven't been around horses much, so I'm in front. Just get on behind me."

With on final glare, Sasuke scrambled up behind Naruto, sitting just off the saddle. The prince waited. "What? I'm on. Let's go."

"If I move, you'll fall off. You need to hold on." He felt the pirate stiffen behind him, but he didn't grab hold. "Don't be a girl," the prince challenged. It worked, and the other wrapped his arm around Naruto's waist. The blond tried valiantly to ignore the heat from the contact and spurred the horse into a gallop.

It had to be the most awkward ride he'd ever been on. Naruto could barely concentrate on where they were going with the strangely distracting feeling of Sasuke's arms around his waist and tried to mask his discomfort with pointless conversation. The pirate flat out refused to respond to anything Naruto said, however, so the two rode in silence the whole way. It was almost a relief when they finally reached the palace.

Just as the story said, the entire staff was made up of cats. They had stopped a little ways away and were spying on the palace, and Naruto could make up a few cats that appeared to be tending the grounds. As soon as he thought that, the nearest cat suddenly stood up on its hind legs and grew, its fur falling to the ground to reveal a human.

"No!" Naruto knew exactly what was happening; the spell was breaking. "No!" He yelled again, running into the open. The gardeners looked over in confusion, right as he was pulled back into the trees.

A hand wrapped around his mouth, and he looked up to see Sasuke shushing him. "Be quiet," the pirate whispered. "We don't know who's in there."

Naruto struggled to escape his grip for a few minutes before giving up. When it looked like he wasn't going anywhere, Sasuke relaxed his grip. "I thought you said we had time," he whispered harshly to the other.

"Apparently not. Shut up; they're coming out."

Naruto turned his head sharply and saw a procession emerging from the palace doors. True to the story, the princess _was_ beautiful. But she wasn't what drew his attention. Before Sasuke could react, Naruto had spun out of his grip and was running toward the parade of courtesans.

"Hey!" He yelled as they turned the corner. "Wait!"

The group turned as he stumbled. The blond skidded to a stop directly in front of the princess and her prince. "Naruto?" A voice asked incredulously as he straightened up. He knew that voice.

"Kankurou? I thought that was you."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were off travelling?" The other man smiled.

Naruto was completely thrown for a loop. Kankurou was the prince of the Wind Country and the older brother of Naruto's closest acquaintance, Gaara. He had short, spikey brunet hair and his arm slung around the Cat Princess.

"I am travelling; I've been trying to find a princess."

"Oh yeah, I remember your dad mentioning something about that. This one's taken already though." The other prince, who couldn't seem to stop smiling, pulled the princess closer to him.

The girl, who had been silent up to this point, smiled at Naruto. "My name's Elayne; it's nice to meet you."

But something Kankurou had said rubbed at Naruto the wrong way. "Yeah, charmed. What was it you said about my dad?" The last was addressed to the other prince.

Kankurou gave him an incredulous look. "He sent me on this mission. Didn't you know that? I asked him for advice on the mission my dad sent me on, and he told me about this palace." That threw Naruto completely for a loop, and he didn't know how to respond. He stayed silent for too long. "Anyway, we have to get going. I should probably tell my father that I'm engaged, you know? You're coming the wedding, ok? Gaara would kill me if I didn't invite you. See ya!"

The princess nodded politely to him, and the group walked off to where Naruto could now see carriages waiting for them. He stood, gazing slack-jawed, as they disappeared into the distance. What finally drew him from his stupor was a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Sasuke looking at him with something like pity on his face.

"Let's go." The pirate turned and walked up the path to the palace. Oh yeah, Naruto had completely forgotten the main reason the other was here.

Sasuke tossed him a sack once they were inside, and the two of them went systematically from room to room, taking anything the raven deemed useful. Naruto would've ordinarily been scandalized at the thought of pillaging another person's palace, but the conversation he'd just had with Kankurou filled his mind instead.

Why would his dad send someone out to rescue a princess when he knew Naruto was trying to do just that? Wasn't that counterproductive? Maybe, he thought as he shoveled a pile of books Sasuke pointed out, his dad was being controlled by someone else. His kingdom might be in danger! He had to get home, he had to help them, he –

"Idiot prince," Sasuke addressed him, jerking Naruto from his reverie. "Move it."

By the time they had cleaned out the rooms of anything Sasuke deemed 'worthy', it was nearing sunset. Naruto was ready to call it a night, say 'screw it', and sleep in one of the rooms upstairs, when Sasuke found a small black candle. Naruto went outside to untie Yuki and let her go back to her owner, while Sasuke went through the rooms once more to check.

It was cool outside, the full moon casting light across the path. The silence did nothing to distract his thoughts, and Naruto found his mind wandering back to his father. It wasn't completely unheard of for a king to send people off on journeys to break curses, even when it wasn't in the land they governed. In that sense it wasn't unusual. So did his father not remember that the Cat Princess was a tale in his book? Or maybe he'd heard that there was a palace that was under a curse and sent someone to break it since he couldn't get a hold of his son. It was entirely Naruto's fault his father couldn't send him, he reasoned. He was the one who had continued on without telling anyone where he was going after the adventure with the dragon.

He reached the spot where they'd left Yuki and began unsaddling her. Perhaps he should send his dad a letter telling him that he was ok. But what would happen if someone found out that he was sailing around the world with a wanted criminal? He _liked_ Sasuke's crew – and the pirate himself wasn't so bad, he supposed – and didn't want to accidentally have them sentenced to death or given a life sentence in prison because of him.

Naruto brushed Yuki's hair and untied her from the tree. She whinnied softly at him before trotting a little ways away and grazing. So sending a message was a bad idea; magic could trace the letter back to the source. Naruto turned back towards the palace, knowing Sasuke would leave if he stayed out here too long.

"Took you long enough." The pirate was waiting for him just inside the door, both bags by his feet. Naruto didn't respond, picking up the nearest sack and throwing it over his shoulder instead. "Think of the right destination this time, idiot." Sasuke grabbed Naruto's elbow and there was a rushing sound as the palace disappeared from view.

* * *

The moon was at its peak when they appeared back on the ship. Neji was the one standing watch, and he simply gave them a nod before turning back to the sea. Naruto helped Sasuke carry the sacks down onto the storage deck before mumbling something and running off. The raven knew he was headed back to the brig to angst about not getting the princess and decided to let him be.

He made his own way back to the captain's quarters, trying to ignore the dull ache of guilt in his stomach. It wasn't that he didn't _know_ they were pushing it, it was just that he never expected it to be that close. He opened his book to the tale and read through it again, trying to see where he went wrong. Usually with these, he read the end, found the date, and ignored the rest. It barely took him any time at all to see where he'd misjudged; apparently the _engagement announcement_ would happen the next day. The prince – Kankurou, Naruto had called him – had already developed a relationship with the princess nearly three months ago.

Sasuke slammed the book shut, telling himself that it wasn't his fault, and replaced it in the secret drawer once more. The feeling of responsibility didn't dissipate, and after a few minutes of pacing around the cabin, the captain remembered that he'd just used the last of their black candles. He went above deck and found Lee steering the ship.

"Adjust the course so we're heading east," he ordered.

Lee jumped, clearly having not heard him walk up. "Yes, captain. I didn't know you were back already." Slowly he turned the wheel. The creak of the ship under their feet announced the change in direction. "Why the sudden change, sir?" Lee asked when Sasuke didn't immediately leave.

The captain leaned back against the edge of the ship. "We have a Witch to see."

* * *

_Once there was a king who had three children who were equally capable of running the kingdom. To decide who he would leave the country to, he set up a test. The challenge was to find the smallest, sweetest dog in the world who could play lapdog to the ailing nurse who had raised the children after his wife's death. The three children went in separate directions: the eldest son to the south, the daughter to the north, and the youngest son to the east. The king gave them three months to complete the mission._

_ When they returned, the eldest had found a small puppet lap dog that was made of wood and controlled by magic. The creature had scared most of the household staff, and the king had sent it away, declaring it would not do. The daughter returned with a wild mountain cat, instead of a dog, declaring that lapdogs were weak. The cat had attacked the palace guards and was finally released back into the wild, much to the princess's disappointment. The youngest son had returned with a large raccoon, having forgotten entirely what the mission was about._

_ The king was so distraught with their failure that he sent them on the second mission. He wanted them to find the finest silk in the world that would one day clothe their future child. With another three months to search, the princess and princes went the same way they had before. The results of this journey were just as disappointing as the first. The eldest returned with string used to control puppets, the princess with a thin, sharp wire, and the youngest with a gourd filled with magic sand._

_ The king, now wondering if any of his children would ever be fit to succeed him, spoke with the neighboring king for advice. The other king told him that the most successful journey was one where their futures were decided. Inspired, the king returned to his children and gave them the third task: find a companion suitable enough to sit on the throne and rule alongside them._

_ This time, when they left, the eldest son rode to the king who had given his father advice to ask for some too. The second king told him of a palace that had been under a spell for as long as he could remember and suggested that the prince start there. When the prince arrived, he saw that the castle had indeed been placed under a strange spell and that all the people inside had been turned to talking cats. The cats were kind to him and let him stay the night, and he was able to meet their leader. The cat he met had the most beautiful white fur he'd ever seen and sat with him at dinner. They spoke of many things the next day, and the white cat allowed him to stay another night. The three months passed in a blur, and soon the day he had to return with his wife had come._

_ He revealed this to the cat, but confessed that he wished she were a human for he had never met someone he could connect with like he could with her. She told him that if he truly loved her, then he would cut off her head and tail, killing her. The prince fell to the floor in a panic, not wanting to harm her, but after much persisting, he caved. With tears flowing down his cheeks, he sliced off the cat's head and tail, and to his delight she transformed into the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. The prince immediately fell to his knees and begged for her to accept his hand in marriage, to which she gladly agreed. The two of them left the palace together, smiling at the staff who had now all returned to their human forms._

_ The other siblings had already made it back and were waiting for him to return. The prince looked stunned when they revealed that they hadn't gone on the journey, instead travelling around for enjoyment. The king was beside himself with anger at the two children who had dared to deny his task and refused to come out of his room. Finally, the staff convinced him to at least greet his eldest son, who had completed the mission, and he emerged. The king was immediately filled with joy that his son had found a princess who had both beauty and wisdom and gave them his blessing when they revealed their engagement to him. The other two siblings were forced to prepare the royal wedding for the new couple, and they all lived happily ever after._


End file.
